My Brown Eyed Beauty
by myagrace
Summary: Companion piece to 'My Green Eyes, My Protector'. EPOV of what happens when his family moves back to Washington, and finds out what has become of the girl they left behind when Edward, his twin, Jasper, and their parents went back to Chicago. And if Bella can be what he needs... for himself and his own twins. Mobward. Rated M for language, violence, possible lemons along the way.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! Ok, as promised, here is the 'companion/outtake' part of 'My Green Eyes, My Protector'. And like I said before, this first chapter, after the phone call from Alice, is pretty much what you've read in MGEMP, if you got to read that part. The stuff just before that is new, though. So at least check out that part, and make sure you're still fresh on your EdwardPOV stuff.

Anyways, this part of the story isn't just his side from what you've read at MGEMP. There are parts, that I'm already planning, that Bella wont be the primary story teller. So, in a way, this part is important too. And you'll get more info on the family and shit he gets into. Hehehe.

Allrighty, let's seeeeee, oh yes, Of course Lola is my beta:D muahs

And SM owns Twi, not I.

Read on!

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EPOV

We were moving back to Washington.

I couldn't be more excited, because I would be that much closer to Bella. Even after all these years, I still remember her. She was the best thing about leaving Chicago. I thought, for certain, that it would be horrible, leaving my home. But it turned out, I found my best friend.

I had hoped, over the years that we would at least be able to come and visit. But when we were younger, dad always said that Bella was fine, and that we didn't need to worry. He would also say that we shouldn't bring too much attention to us having lived there. And at the time, being so young, neither Jasper nor I understood. But when we finally learned about the mafia, it made more sense.

_I still wanted to fucking see her…_

But I listened to my dad and didn't go to Washington.

That is until now…

I wasn't sure if I should try to contact her, or not. I understand what my dad said about not putting her in danger. But damn it, I was tired of staying away.

I had been to Seattle and back several times over the past few months, working on a few deals to get business up and running. I had the hotel setup and running how I wanted and the renovations were scheduled to start this week. It would take a while, because we were going floor by floor.

The club/bar was what I would start focusing on this week.

I've already got my place setup. Well, mine and my twins, Masen and Izzy. Those two are the best thing that could ever happen to me. Even though they came from a really shitty situation.

Irina really had some god damn nerve when she tried to threaten me with a baby. At first, I thought she was full of shit, that there was no way that I was that careless, even though I was fucking high and drunk out of my mind. I'm usually in, at least a semi sober enough state of mind to wrap it up.

And then when she disappeared for months, I didn't know what the hell was going on, kinda worried me. I may not have cared for Irina, but that was my kid. The fact that she was on the lookout for a 'meal ticket', freaked me the fuck out. She could be fucking any number of men, putting my child at risk.

When she showed up that day on our doorstep, with _two_ babies, I was shocked beyond belief. She never said anything about twins. But I guess I should have chalked up the possibility, considering Jasper and I were.

So, it was me, Masen and Izzy. Irina didn't even have the decency to name them before she left the hospital. Bitch. Well, I guess it was a blessing in disguise. I got to name them what I wanted to, without her interfering.

Masen was a no-brainer. Masen was my middle name, and from two days old, mom said he looked just like me. So that was a given.

Izzy… I had to wonder if I was making the right choice with her name. She did look like the cute, female version of Masen, but she also had that sweet, alluring innocence to her that I always saw in Bella. I wanted to at least hold onto a tiny piece of Bella, even if it was just her namesake. I even asked mom if she thought it would be weird to name her after Bella, but she thought it would be a great idea. So, I named her Isabella Esme, after the two most important females in my life.

That's how they became Masen Anthony, and Isabella Esme Cullen.

I had been moving some furniture into my parent's new house in Seattle when Alice called me in hysterics.

"Edward! I don't know where they are! They were playing in front of me while I was talking to Jazz on the phone and I saw a bunch of kids running around. I think they got into the group of them and they all took off in the other direction. But I can't find them now!" Alice tried to explain through her panicked voice.

"Well go find them!" I yelled through the phone. I grabbed my keys and ran out of the house. "Mom! Dad! Alice lost the kids! I'm going to wherever the hell she took them to see if I can find them!" I yelled to them where they were directing the movers to place stuff.

My mother came running over to me before I reached my car. "Oh my god, do you want me to with you, honey?"

"No, mom. I'll go and hopefully she's found them by the time I get there. Do you know where exactly she was going with them?" I asked as I jumped into the car.

"The small park in Forks. I thought it was a descent distance away, where no one would really know they were there. Be careful and bring my babies home." Esme said with worry etched on her face.

"I will. Don't worry, mom. I'll call you." and with that, I was down the driveway and quickly out of the quiet, but huge gated neighborhood.

I punched Forks into the GPS and sped down the road for what seemed to be an hour and a half to two hour drive. But with my driving, I'd probably make it in half the time.

I dialed Alice's number again.

"Alice, you better have found my kids by now!" I hissed into the phone.

"Don't start with me, Edward. When have I ever lost them before? Or any of us? Just… Oh thank God! I found them." She sounded like she was running, which was a good thing because the sooner I got my kids back, the better I'd feel.

"They shouldn't have been lost in the first place! There better not be a scratch on them when I get there, Alice."

"Would you chill out? I found them. You don't have to send out the search dogs. Calm down." She tried to placate me, but I'm too riled up. Anything could have happened to them. God only knows which of my enemies could have been following my family, waiting for the right time to get at me, personally.

"Calm down? CALM DOWN? Are you shitting me right now, Alice? You lost my kids! They are all that I have! You know what kind of people could have taken them! You're lucky you're Jazz's fiancé…" I started on my rant, because really, I only had one way to let out my agitation right now. I'd make it up to her later. Shoes are always a good idea for Alice.

"E…Ed…E!" She tried to cut into my rant. Damn it, I was on a roll, too. "Would you chill out? Little ears can hear you! Look, I found them, they seem to be safe. They were with a woman in the park…" she said into the phone, and then I heard her say away from the phone. _"I'm sorry. I didn't get a chance to introduce myself with this crazy on the phone. I'm Alice Brandon, the kid's unofficial aunt. And you are?" _I gritted my teeth at her jab at me.

"Bella. Nice to meet you." Wait a damn minute, I knew that voice… and with that name…Could it possibly be her?

"E? You there?" I heard Alice ask, but I could only focus on one thing.

"… Alice, are you in Forks?" I asked her, hoping that mom was right and she took them to Forks.

"Yes? Why?" Alice asked, sounding really confused. She would have had no idea what was going on.

"…B? Is that you?" I asked, hesitantly, holding my breath for her to answer.

"Oh God." I heard her gasp, then a small commotion on the other end of the line. I heard Alice, Masen and Izzy yelling for Bella, and I had no idea what was going on.

"Alice? ALICE! What's going on? What happened?" I asked, worried that something happened to Bella.

"She ran… What's going on, Edward? Do you know her? Is she one of your flings?" Alice asked, sarcastically.

"Watch your mouth! Don't you dare talk about her like that." No one talked about my BEB like that.

Oh shit, I've got to get there and find her. God, it's been almost twenty years since I've seen her and, damn it if I didn't miss her every single day.

I was still about thirty minutes away from Forks…

"Alice, I'll be there in a half hour. If you can, see which way Bella went. I've gotta find her when I get there." I ended the call and stepped on the gas.

When I made it to Forks, the memories came crashing back. My throat got a little dry as I stepped out of the car when I reached the park. Thinking about Bella, I remember when we were kids, how we met, all the time we spent together, and when we had to leave Washington.

_~Flashback~_

When I saw her being taunted by those kids the first day I met her, that Brown Eyed Beauty became my entire focus.

No one should pick on you just because you're a little different.

And dad always taught us to protect those that are defenseless.

The little blond girl that had taken BEB's bucket away from her, tried being all sweet to me, but I knew better. She was one of those girls that always got what she wanted, just with a smile or a pout.

Kids like her were such brats.

Anyways, I had never met someone so… mature before, that was my own age.

Mom always said I was too mature for my age, and that I needed to loosen up a little bit; be a kid. I hadn't really minded. All the times I had spent with my dad and brother, figuring things out like board games, puzzles, games of strategy, things like that. I never knew why he wanted us to know all this stuff. I always thought he wanted us to be super smart one day. But I was off the mark.

Really off.

So when mom had taken me to the park that day, I did what she asked and found someone to play with.

I just didn't know how important she would be to me.

When Bella came over that afternoon, I found her completely mesmerizing. She was a little clumsy, and she blushed all the time, but I found it to be cute. I loved that about her. And she just melded so well into our family, and into my life. She fit perfectly.

When Bella and my mother were baking cookies, they were like a machine. They worked really well together. Bella was so sweet and fun. My mother loved her, instantly.

The same thing with my dad and Jasper. They all ended up under her spell.

Over time, we had become so close.

I had wanted to hold her hand in school, but I didn't want her to get picked on because she was holding hands with a boy. So one day, we were leaving our classroom to go to the lunchroom; I decided to hook my pinky with hers.

I thought she might freak out and pull away from me, but she just smiled over at me and squeezed my finger.

It became our way of holding hands.

Jazz had said I was in love when he saw us, and I didn't really deny it.

I had seen how my mom and dad were with each other. The sweet looks, happiness, and peace they always seemed to share just from being with each other was the same thing Bella and I had.

I always felt that, being around Bella. So no, I wasn't going to say that I wasn't in love with her, even though we were six years old.

The day that everything came crashing down was when my mom came into my room to talk to me.

"Edward, sweetie, do you remember when we moved here? We came from Chicago to get out of the city for a while." I nodded. "Well, your dad needs to go back. The business he left there needs his attention again, so… we have to move back there…" Mom told me, and waited for things to sink in.

"Wait, we're moving?" I asked, and she nodded. "I have to leave Bella?" I asked again, and she waited, but nodded again. "Well, can't she come with us? I mean, she fits in so well with our family. She could even stay in my room if there aren't enough rooms for her. Please, mama? I don't want to leave her. She's my best friend. I can't lose her."

Mom gave me a sad smile. "I'm sorry baby, but she has to stay here with her family. I know how attached you are to her, but we have to go. You know, you'll always have a piece of her with you. You have some pictures of her, and of the two of you, and even you, Bella and Jasper. You'll always be able to remember her. But we need to start packing. We leave in a week." Mom kissed my forehead, and then got up to bring in some boxes.

I got up and ran out of the house. I didn't even think about where I was going, since it was second nature to me, and I ended up in front of Bella's front door.

When she opened the door, I almost broke down.

How was I supposed to leave my best friend behind? She's like family. She _is_ family.

When we sat down and I told her we were leaving, I knew she would react the way she did. I knew she would take it really hard because she thought she would never have any real friends because she was a 'loner'. The kids in Forks just didn't know what they were missing out on with her. She was such an amazing person.

I wasn't sure how I felt. Sure, I was really upset and sad, but something else that hurt deep in my chest, was there too.

I had never really cried much in my life, but that day, I did. With my Bella. My BEB.

We literally spent the next week attached to each other. I know Bella was afraid I would disappear before it was time for us to actually leave. And I tried to make sure she knew I wasn't leaving just yet. I never wanted to leave her.

When my mom had said something about the pictures I would have to remember Bella, I got to thinking that I wanted her to have something to remember me by.

So I asked mom if I could get her something. I wanted it to be something that was personal, but that she would always know how I felt about her. Something she could look at everyday.

My mom took me to the jewelry store and I found the perfect thing. It was silver colored, what mom called white gold, heart shaped locket. There was a swirly heart engraved on the front, with a little diamond in the center.

"Mama, can I get something written on the back of it?" I asked her as I was looking at it in my hand.

"Sure sweetheart. Anything you want to do with it. This is a special gift. What do you want to put on it?" She asked as she watched me.

"'Ti amo'. I want her to always know how much she means to me." I said in a small voice.

Seeing as how both of our families were Italian, it made sense.

"Of course, honey." She said, a little shocked, but I think she's always known I felt really strongly about Bella.

The day we left Forks, was almost unbearable.

Giving Bella the locket was the best choice I'd ever made. The small light in her eyes made me feel a tiny bit better, but it still sucked that I was losing her.

I told her that I loved her, but hearing it back from her warmed my heart.

When I heard mom say it was time to go, I was about to panic. This was it. I was really leaving her. It felt so wrong.

I let Bella cry into my shoulder, and I even let my tears flow. I wanted to be strong for her, but I wasn't sure if I could.

I slowly let her go and climbed into the backseat of the car with Jasper. He wasn't really happy we were leaving either. He had grown attached to Bella too. He always called her Little B, or sis.

As I watched out the window of the car, I knew she was trying to hold in the tears.

But as we drove away, I saw her run out to the street and watched as she fell to her knees and start to cry all over again.

That caused my own dam to burst. I sobbed and cried my eyes out all the way to the airport. Jasper let me lay my head on his lap while we drove and tried to comfort me, but it did little. I'd probably never see my BEB again. It felt like my heart was breaking in two.

"We should probably keep an eye on them… make sure they're ok over the years…" I heard my mom say, quietly, to my dad.

"I think you're right, Es. I'd feel better in case there are questions. Or someone goes sniffing around where we were…" My dad responded.

I didn't really know what they were talking about, and I didn't care at the time.

None of it mattered without my BEB.

_~End of Flashback~_

"Daddy!" I heard the two voices of my angels, from behind me.

They barreled into me, and I wrapped them up in a huge hug.

"Are you guys ok? You're not hurt or anything, are you?" I asked, looking them over, just to be safe.

"We're fine, daddy. Miss Bella took care of us, when she found us. She's really pretty. Izzy had to climb the jungle gym to get away from some of the kids that chased her. They weren't really nice." Masen went on to explain to me.

I'm automatically sent back to twenty years ago, when I was on this very playground, defending my BEB.

Then the feeling of leaving that day hit me like a punch to the stomach. I rubbed my hand over my heart, knowing what was there. Feeling the break in my heart heal, just the tiniest bit. It makes me hopeful that, maybe, the dull ache will be replaced.

_God I miss her…_

"Ok, guys, I want you to go with Aunt Alice." Then I turned to Alice. "Go to the Inn that's just up the road. I need to go take care of something, but I want them with me, here. So can you stay with them tonight, until I get back to the Inn?"

Alice was already nodding. "Yeah, of course. Do you need anything? I can help…" She said in a small voice that reminded me of a small child.

I realized that I was a dick to her earlier and I needed to apologize.

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry, Ali. I'm just so terrified that someone will come after them…"

"No, it's ok. I understand. I should have kept a better eye on them. Especially with so many other kids around and not knowing the area. I'm still not sure why Esme told me to bring them here. There's nothing around this town." Alice said, looking around, as if trying to find some 'shopping ray of sunshine' in this small town. Not that she was gonna find it.

"There's a diner not far from the Inn. Why don't you guys grab something to eat and go relax? I've got some work to do." I told them, kissing each of the twin's heads.

"Edward? What work? There's nothing around here… to do with that. Why are you working?" Alice asked, making sure the kids didn't catch anything they didn't need to.

"It's not that kind of work, Ali. It's different…" I told her, and rubbed my hand over my heart again.

_I've got to find her._

Alice noticed what I was doing, and her brows furrowed. She had no clue what the letters meant. Some of my family had asked me, but there was no way I could tell them. It was too personal to me. It was like our secret… like pinky hand holding…

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Sooooo, ok, really a no brainer that this has to set up the rest of the story, so chill with me. We're getting there. Be patient. Next chapter is already written, but I'm looking it over to make sure I like it. I'm already into chapter 3.

Alright, so, what else. Ummm, oh! Ok so, since this is posting this week, remember I said I was alternating, so next week will be chapter 6 of MGEMP. It's already done, as well. (Lola, still need to talk to you about that one.)

Anywho, I'll see you guys next week over at MGEMP.

Laters!


	2. Chapter 2

Hey you guys! So the ban/protest last weekend seemed to be pretty well done by authors and readers. Not sure about the people wanting to pull our stories, and ffn itself, but I'm proud of everyone that participated in it. Hopefully they took notice.

So, with this chapter, we're getting a little bit of Edward before he finally sees Bella. And a little extra information as well.

And if you haven't read 'MGEMP', then you are going to be totally lost with this story. Lol Soooo I suggest reading that before this. I've got it setup where this is playing off of that story. So, MGEMP should be read first for any of this to make sense.

As usual, Lola is my beta, awesome friend, and cool picture maker. Lol

And SM owns Twilight, I surely don't.

This story is also on TWCS if ever it gets pulled from this site. Or if you just want to check out the pictures that go along with each story, which are on there already, and on my profile.

Read on my peeps!

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EPOV

Seriously? I start my search for Bella and this dickhead has to call me?

It sucks to be a fucking important person in this business.

_Damn it all the hell._

Getting people to respect you in a new town is hard. But when it's this business that you're trying to get respect in, then you better show them that you're not fucking around.

Being dad's right hand man is why I had to leave Forks and rush back to Seattle. I'm the one that people have to deal with first, if they want to even have a chance at dealing with Carlisle Cullen. When you're as important as dad is, then you have to become priority to become important enough to be on his list.

_Not his hit list. That's a different one._

Anyways, I had to get back to Seattle to meet with Riley, one of the guys I've been doing business with here. He's one of the only people I trusted here, outside of the family.

I already have issues trusting people that I have no idea what their intentions are.

It's extremely important in our line of work that we can trust the people we surround ourselves with. We've had to weed out some rats several times in the past, but it's to be expected in our line of work.

And what, exactly, is our line of work, you ask?

Well, we're what people call, the mafia. It's not so much just killing people, and doing every illegal thing imaginable.

No. We do more than that.

Yes, we kill people, but not without cause. That person has to have done wrong to our family, scrounged their opportunity to pay us back or work off what they owe us, hurt someone from the family, done some shady business, or done something extremely illegal that the cops can't handle. No, we don't work for the cops, but we keep an ear out for things they're working on, and we pick up the slack. We're not all bad. We've done some drug selling, but we let that ship sail. No human trafficking. Big no-no for us. Our other main things are guns, and shipping.

So we do a little of everything.

But, of course, we can't just do that as a business. We have to have 'real jobs'. So, we all have our business ventures.

Most of us own our own businesses. Like me, I have hotels, clubs, and a few apartments/ condo complexes. Things like that. Jasper likes to be the 'financial guy', always makes sure we're doing the right things with our money. I would rather trust someone that's in the family with that side of things, than have just anyone do it. Jasper is very good at his job. Dad; he's into almost everything. He's got hotels, clubs, casinos, shipping ports in almost all the major cities.

Now, mom on the other hand, she refused to be the stay at home 'mafia wife'. She did a little side business out of the house where she would bake for people who had requested things. And she had a regular running customer list. People loved her stuff. I don't know why she didn't just open up a bakery, but she enjoyed the hell out of what she did for others. She also ran a dance school and taught a dance class of her own. Her thing was ballroom dancing. It was another thing she absolutely loved to do. She plans on starting classes, here in Seattle, soon.

Our cousin, Emmett, is still in Chicago, keeping an eye on business there. He and his dad, our uncle Ed, were running things now that we weren't there. Emmett wanted to stay on with our 'crew', but for the moment, we needed him there.

I don't blame him, though. Em, Jazz and I always were a great team, together. It was gonna be hard not doing this without him here all the time. He was always the comedy in a serious business.

But we're hoping that, very soon, he'll be able to come out here, permanently. Uncle Ed and his other son, Anthony, were fully capable of handling things on their own. But for the time being, they're taking control, and doing a great job.

After going to the docks to deal with Riley and the shit they were trying to pull with the club, I head over to the hotel and get some things finalized with the remodels we're getting set to do.

I really like the hotel. It's so different from any other place I've been and I want to keep it different. The rooms seemed to be more in line with the normal, upper scale hotel rooms you would find out there. I wanted to modernize it. That's why I went with the new name, and then the moon on the walls would tie it together. The light fixtures is one of the things I've got to make a choice on tonight. My crew that's been working on the remodel keeps going back and forth, and I'm just gonna have to nip it in the bud. It's gonna be my final decision, anyways.

After deciding on the track lights that are a light tan/gold color and in different sizes, it's well after midnight. Tanya, the current hotel manager, and my assistant, is the only one on duty this late, and I really wish she wasn't. All she fucking does is throw herself at me. The only thing she hasn't done is jump on me or torn her clothes off. Which I'm afraid won't be too far in the future.

God help me.

She's great as a manager, but when she sees the dollar signs walk in the door, she turns it on. She turns into the 'sex vixen', as she likes to call herself. But really, she's just slutty in how she does things to get men. I've told her that she needs to tone it down and knock it off. It's not professional and I won't put up with that kind of shit. But, her reaction is to try and kiss me.

She really is desperate. She reminds me too much of Irina. And I seriously don't need another woman like her.

If I'm ever going to have another woman in my life, she has to be real. And she definitely has to love my children. That's a deal breaker, right there. My kids are my whole world.

I'm working on getting the rest of the ordering done for the rest of the things needed for the remodel, when Jasper texts me that he's on the road back to Seattle. But he doesn't tell me if he has Bella with him or not. So I text his ass back, asking him if she's with him, and what do I get back from him?

Abso-fucking-lutely nothing!

Dickhead!

If she's not with him, I'm shooting him in the fucking foot.

Waiting for them to get here is like torture for me. It's been so damn long, and she's getting closer and closer, but still not here.

I just want to see my girl! Is that too much to fucking ask!

While I'm in my office, I watch on the cameras for any sign of them. So far, nothing. It's been almost two hours.

Then I hear a knock on the door.

"Come in!" I yell, probably a little more harshly than I should. Oh well.

Tanya pokes her head through the door and gives me, what I think is suppose to be, a seductive smile. But it just doesn't work. It's not sweet or kind. There's only one smile that would make my heart swell. And I haven't seen it in twenty years.

"Hey Eddie. I thought you had gone ahead and gone up to your floor. I saw your light on in here and thought you might want some… company." She smiled saucily at me.

It only made me cringe. Gah, why in the holy fuck does this woman have to be so damn unprofessional? I don't need this shit, and I don't need her going and trying to file a sexual harassment suit on me later, even if I did want to do anything with her. Which I would rather stab myself in the fucking eye.

"Tanya, I don't know how many times I have to tell you, that is unprofessional and if you can't act like a manager of one of the top hotels in Seattle, then you can be replaced. I will not put up with this. So you can go home and think about getting your shit together and act like the professional you're suppose to be-" I told her, but the movement out of the corner of my eye made me stop.

I looked at the monitor that was watching the front doors, and saw Jasper walking in with a brunette.

_Bella._

It had to be her.

"Look, Tanya, I gotta go out front. I suggest you take my advice and rethink your priorities and professionalism. I have no problem bringing someone else in that can handle the position without throwing themselves at their boss." I said as I got up and walked around my desk to leave my office.

"Eddie, just consider how good we could be. You know it's just a matter of time before you come crawling to me for it." She tried to be the innocent, yet sexy kind of girl, but just came off as desperate and annoying as fuck.

"Actually I think I'd rather shoot myself in the head." I muttered, hoping she didn't hear, but didn't care one way or the other. I'm probably going to have to fire her within the week with her keeping this shit up. I can't deal with it.

I walked out of the office after she had, and started walking towards the lobby.

I could hear low voices talking, but wasn't sure what was being said. I could also hear Tanya following behind me, which just fucking pissed me off.

_Can this woman not get a damn clue?_

As I made my way closer, I saw that Jasper had his arm slung over her shoulder, talking to her quietly.

He looked up as he heard my approach and told her that he was sure I already had a room and key ready for her.

Which I did.

Hey, Jasper was right, she's family and there's no way in hell I was letting her pay for it when there was no need.

_I really just want her to stay forever…_

I need to hold off on that one… for a little while anyways.

Oh come on. Do you really think I still don't love her? I've always loved this girl. Even at six years old, she stole my heart, and never gave it back.

I know that it's not the same when you're six or seven, as when you twenty six, but with her being right there in front of me, makes all of those feelings come back, and strengthen. Granted I'm not going to propose to her right now, but I do want to see where things could go with her. I want to get to know her again, and to see how well, or even if, she could handle our lifestyle. I definitely don't want to lose her again.

When she finally turned around, I had to stop in my tracks, and my jaw dropped open.

_Fuck, I must have done something right in a past life._

Standing there in front of me is the most beautiful sight, ever.

There is Bella in a pair of tight stone washed jeans, a black Beatles tee, black boots over the jeans, and a fitted hoodie. Her hair is up in a ponytail, and she has on very little makeup.

So simple, but still so stunning.

And the brown eyes that I've always found so soulful and beautiful look even deeper than I remember.

She has grown into such a magnificent creature. When I call her my sweet beauty, it's well earned.

I wasn't expecting her to run over to me and wrap her arms around my waist, with her head buried in my chest.

And I've missed this feeling so much that it takes me a second to respond. I eagerly wrap my own arms around her, as tightly as I can, without hurting her, and rest my cheek on top of her head.

_Fuck, she smells good. Like strawberries and lavender. So delicious. _

I can feel her body vibrating, and then realize she's crying. I try to sooth her as best I can. For some reason, I've always been the one that can calm her down.

How she can think that I'm 'beautiful' is beyond my comprehension. She is the gorgeous, striking beauty. Not me. No way in hell is it me.

When Tanya decides to interrupt our moment, I suddenly feel like I want to take back the rule about not hurting women… Cuz she is severely close to getting beat down.

As I tell Tanya that Bella has family rights, I see a slight flash of irritation in her eyes, but she quickly masks it.

Once Tanya finally leaves, I explained the room stuff to Bella. Jasper and I walked over to gather her bags for her.

When Jasper tells me that the dog has a bullet with his name on it, and his eyes motion towards where Bella is standing, it takes me a second to realize that Black has done something to her.

And I am fuming.

I don't want to say anything until we are out of earshot of anyone, even though it's the middle of the night. I want to do this in the privacy of a room. I just hope I can deal with what she tells me.

When we're up in her suite, I just go and look out over the city, praying that whatever Black did, wasn't anything that I'm thinking. And I've got some worst case scenarios going through my head.

None of which I can stomach.

As I listen to her recounting what Black did to her, I'm filled with rage and fucking anger that is about to boil over.

That fucking prick _touched_ her.

Without her permission.

Fucking violated her.

_HE'S A DEAD MAN!_

I have to get out of here, even for a few moments, because I'm about to hit something.

I try to think quickly what room Bella said she didn't care for, and in the back of my mind I remember that it was the office.

So I quickly make my way to the office, and the first thing I do is punch a hole in the wall. And then a few more. I rip the door off the hinges and throw it across the room. Then I take the office chair and throw that across the room, as well. I start throwing shit from on top of the desk, too. Anything I can get my hands on.

I'm so fucking enraged that I almost can't breath.

When I get through with Jacob fucking Black, he's going wish that the _only_ thing I do to him, is cut his dick off.

I stand there looking at the hole in the wall for a while. I don't even look at the rest of the destruction I've caused, because right now, I want to do so much more, but I can't find anything else to break in here.

I have to calm down. She could have already run out of the suite when she heard me in here.

God, she's probably scared to death because of this. I don't want her to think that I would hurt her. I would never, _ever_, fucking hurt her, in any way. She's too precious to me.

As I'm breathing deeply, I'm trying to get a handle on my rage.

I'll deal with Black in time.

But right now, I need to go to Bella.

I feel the tears gather in my eyes, realizing the horror she must have felt when he attacked her.

It should have never happened.

I should have fucking been here!

I could have stopped him.

I rush out of the office, back towards the living room, and fall to my knees in front of her, wrapping my arms around her waist and burying my face in her stomach.

I can't take it anymore, and I let it out. I cry for her, and the fear that she must have lived with all these years.

I think about Rosalie and what happened to her several years ago. She wasn't much older than Bella was, but she was attacked and raped by two guys in Chicago. They hurt her pretty badly, and the doctors told her how hard it would be for her to have a child, naturally. The two men were so rough with her that they caused a lot of damage to her, down there.

Emmett had been about as enraged as I was a few minutes ago, when he found out that his girlfriend of three years had been raped.

It's not something he got over very easily.

He's still very protective of her. Makes sure she has a tracker in her phone, makes sure she calls a few times a day to know she's ok.

She objected at first, telling him he was being insane, but when he told her that it would put him at ease and let him do his job better by knowing that she's safe and happy, made her change her mind.

They still do their routine check-in with each other everyday, if they're not together, but Emmett has eased up a little on things.

I can't say that I blamed him for how he reacted.

Especially now.

When I finally had calmed down, she's the one that soothes me, not the other way around.

I don't understand how she can be this calm about it, but I'm thankful.

I'm so glad that she wants to talk to Rosalie. That woman… you would never know now that she had been a victim. She bounced back so well, even though it took some time. She's back to her old self. Better, even.

But when Bella tells me she might not be able to have children, my heart just sinks.

She should be blessed with as many children as she wants. A dozen, if that's what it takes.

I just hope that this isn't a cause from what Jacob did to her. If it is, I will make sure he dies a slow and excruciatingly painful death. A bullet to the head is too easy. He shouldn't be able to just get it over with. No, I think I'll ponder about what exactly I can do for our dear friend, Jacob Black.

When Bella thinks she overstepped on the subject of the twins' mother, I know I have to tell her about Irina.

That woman doesn't deserve the breath wasted on her story, but it's something Bella needs to know about.

She needs to know about my family, too.

I'm a little shocked at her reaction and that she wants to rip Irina a new one. But I wouldn't stop her if it came to it. Especially if Irina ever thinks she will be a part of their lives.

She can fucking think again.

It will never happen.

* * *

Alright, so that was that chapter. The next one is already written and ready to go. I'm gonna start working on 4 now.

I'll see you guys next week at MGEMP!

Laters!


	3. Chapter 3

Hey guys! So here's chapter 3. I know some of you are worrying that there's no dialogue, but there is some in this one. I'm trying not to make it so repetitive, but there are parts that I will put in there that are from the other story. (if that makes sense.) There is some new info in this chapter, so pay attention.

Ummmm, ok, Lola is, as usual, the bestest beta. Muahs.

And SM owns twi, I don't. *big sad face*

Anyways, read on!

* * *

EPOV

Whenever I went to leave Bella's suite that night and she stopped me, I was a little wary.

I didn't want her to freak out because I'm staying with her during the night. She said that she doesn't like being touched, so why the hell would she be ok with me staying here?

I was shocked as hell when she said she was comfortable around Jasper and I. She probably wouldn't when she found out what I did for a living.

And when she showed me the tattoos on her wrists, I was completely stunned.

She had the same idea that I had with my own tattoo over my heart. We both wanted representation, even if we were the only ones that knew what it meant.

I was doing a little victory dance in my head when she finally told me what I was to her. Definitely not like a brother. Thank god. But after what she told me about Black, I'm going to have to go slowly with her, until she's ready.

And I can do that. I _will._ For her.

Plus, I really won't let just anyone be around my children. I have to be able to trust them.

I sure as hell wouldn't let Irina be around them, and she's their biological mother. But Bella? Yeah, I'd leave my kids in her hands, without question.

When she walked out of the bathroom in a tight Batman t-shirt and shorts, I couldn't help but stare. For one thing, Batman was my favorite when I was a kid. And the fact that she was wearing that shirt made me a little giddy.

But the way she looked in the whole thing, made me want to drool. It all fit her well, but not to the point that it was slutty. It was nice.

And then I had to go and fuck it all up when she figured out about what we did and who we were.

I could have denied it, told her that that was a crazy notion. But I just couldn't lie to her. I never could when we were little, and there was no way I could start now.

I could lie with the best of them. Anyone would believe the things that came out of my mouth, but Bella… between her and my mother, I could never, ever lie to them.

And for the love of god, I wanted dad to be the one to tell her. It should be his call, but I had a feeling they would have told her, anyways. Mom loves Bella like her own, so she would have wanted her to be in the loop.

They don't even know I've talked to her, or that she's here, in Seattle.

_I better call them in the morning to give them a heads up._

God knows mom's going to want to have her over as soon as humanly possible.

I guess I can't blame mom, though. She's always wanted her 'daughter' back.

When we first left to go back to Chicago, I could hear mom crying on the plane, and several nights when we had gotten back to our house. And when I'd ask her what was wrong, she would tell me she was just sad that we left Forks so soon.

But I would still hear her crying, ever so often, so I knew it was more than that.

She finally told dad one night that she missed Bella so much that she was tempted to break his 'rule', and go back to Forks.

But of course, dad reminded her of why we had to stay away. That didn't stop her from pouting a little, though.

That first look of fear in her eyes when she had guessed that we were killers, and I didn't say anything to argue against it, was almost worse than watching her through the back window of the car when we left Forks.

Then when she bolted for the door, I knew I had to stop her. I made the split second decision to tell her what our family was and did, because I didn't want to cause her anymore pain or fear.

But when she asked me to still stay, I'm dumbfounded. I just told her I'm a mobster; a killer, criminal, an incredibly dangerous person, and she still wants me to stay with her.

Maybe it won't be as hard as I thought to pursue a relationship with her, when the time is right.

She kept the locket I gave her when we left… I can't believe that she still had it and wore it. It made me feel like; maybe she's been waiting for me to come back?

And that made me decide to show her my tattoos.

For one thing, she needed to know about her tattoo I had over my heart. The calligraphy writing of the letters 'BEB' with the vines going around to the family tree has special meaning for me.

It means she's part of the family, too.

And the tattoo on my back of the kids' names. She needed to know about Izzy's name.

I was ready for her to be furious, or even freaked out, but she wasn't. That, I couldn't be happier with.

Laying there in the bed with her is slightly comforting. Like she's, somewhat, accepting all of this about my family.

I'm sure it'll hit her a little harder tomorrow, but I have a feeling mom will want to talk to her about things when she finds out.

When she skims her fingers across my cheek, it just sends a warm, happy feeling through me. I wanted to hold onto that feeling, so I grabbed her hand and brought it down to my chest. Just holding her hand there lulled me into sleep.

In the morning, I'm woken up by a light tracing of fingers up around my arm.

Her saying that she doesn't understand how I'm here with her was kind of baffling. But then she tells me about her family and I'm furious.

How can they possibly treat their own child and sister like that?

It's like that theory about a child that grows up without comfort, love or a tender touch. They need that to thrive.

So does Bella. And I don't think she's had that chance to thrive, herself.

That's why I took it upon myself to ask her to move here. I want her here; I know Jasper does, too. When mom and dad find out she's here, mom's not going to want to let her go back to Forks.

I made sure she knew that I wanted her to do what _she_ wanted. What she _needs_.

I need to make a note to get her to talk to Alice, also.

Alice came from abusive parents.

~flashback~

They lived in Chicago all their lives. Her dad was a businessman, and her mother… I really don't know what her mother did. She wasn't any sort of a decent parent, that's for damn sure, but I don't think she ever worked, either. All she ever did was spend her husband's money.

It's a wonder that Alice turned out the way she did. She is so kind and loving and thrives on being happy. She loves fashion, hence the reason she started a fashion line that's just getting off the ground.

But when we were little, her parents were never home. We later found out that her parents were both going elsewhere to find companionship. Her mom was looking for anyone that would spend money on her, and her dad was looking for anyone that was willing to spread their legs.

Alice would always come and stay with us when they were gone, and they didn't seem to care. Even though most all of Chicago knew who we were. They let their only daughter hang around with the mob.

Some of the days when she came over, she would have blue and purple marks on her arms, legs, or face.

Jasper and I wouldn't say a word, but Jasper would be the one to go get ice to put on the bruises.

I think dad saw them and had a little talk with Mr. Brandon, one day. But I don't think that it stopped them from smacking her around or telling her she was worthless.

She was just a little girl.

But one day, when we were seventeen, Alice showed up to the house, clutching her arm to her chest, crying, and bruises everywhere.

Bastard had shoved her down the stairs of their house.

Jasper flew out of the house, after he checked on Alice to see if she would be ok for a few minutes, and drove over to the Brandon's house.

He ended up beating the hell out of Walter Brandon for even thinking of touching his Alice.

Mr. Brandon ended up in the ER that night.

And after taking Alice to the ER too, we found that she had a broken arm and some mild bruising.

Later that night, we moved all of Alice's things into our house, and she never left.

~ end flashback~

When Bella and I get up to start our morning after her stomach made itself known, she went into the bathroom, and I went out to the living room to call downstairs.

Once the food was called in, I made a call to my mom.

"Hey honey. How are the kids doing?" My mother greeted me.

"Aw, nice mom. No 'how are you doing this fine morning son?' for me? That hurts, ma." I fake pouted.

But I could hear the smile in her voice. "You wouldn't be calling me if you weren't fine. So what's going on? And where are my grandbabies? I want to show them the new play area in the backyard that we're setting up today."

I sighed. "Ma, the kids are still in Forks. Alice is with them." I went on to tell her about what happened yesterday, leaving out the part that it was Bella that found the kids, and that she was here.

"Oh honey, I'm just glad they're ok. So Alice is driving them back today?"

"Yeah. Ummm, mom… The person that found the kids was Bella…" I trailed off, waiting for her reaction.

I suddenly heard the sound of shattering glass on the other end of the phone.

"Ma? You ok?"

"Where is she, Edward? Where's my girl?" I heard her voice quiver a bit.

"She's here, mom. She's in Seattle. Jasper brought her back late last night."

"WHAT! AND YOU'RE JUST NOW CALLING ME? EDWARD ANTHONY CULLEN, YOU BRING MY DAUGHTER OVER HERE, RIGHT FUCKING NOW! I WON'T TAKE ANY EXCUSES. I'VE WAITED LONG ENOUGH TO SEE HER." She screeched into the phone, making me pull it away from my ear.

"I will, ma. But I need to tell you and dad that she knows. About our family. It kinda came out last night when we were talking, and… she seems to be ok, so far. But I don't think any of it's really hit her yet… Ma, her parents have been total shits to her, her whole life. They treat her like a fucking doormat, and she's expected to drop everything she's doing and run when one of them calls. They've told her that she wasn't wanted when she was born. Called her a mistake. They don't care about her or what she wants out of life." I take a deep breath to try and calm myself. Not working. "Mom, she was almost raped when she was eighteen. But that's not the worst part of it. Jacob fucking Black was the one who attacked her…" I couldn't talk anymore. If I did, I was going to blow up and start screaming and maybe go back to the office in the suite and rip some more shit apart.

Mom was quiet on the other end, and I was afraid I had lost her. But then I hear her whisper.

"Edward… please tell me you're joking…"

I sighed again. "I wish I was, Ma. But she told me and Jasper about it last night. It's caused her some emotional issues."

Then, she let go with a rant like I have never heard. "THAT COCK-SUCKING, MUTHERFUCKING, SON-OF-A-BITCH, PIECE OF SHIT, ASS FUCKER! HE BETTER RUN THE OTHER WAY, FOR HIS LIFE, IF I EVER SEE HIM! HE'S A FUCKING DEAD MAN WALKING!" Oh dear god, I think my mother has reached her limit. She's never been this livid.

"Mom, please. I don't need you going vigilante. He's already got a date with the end of my gun. I'm already putting a plan together to torture that motherfucker. Trust me; he's not getting away with it. But I did want to give you guys a heads up about things. I wanted dad to tell her about us, but I could _**not**_ tell her after she figured it out and flipped. And I know she wouldn't want to be the one to tell you what happened to her, either. She had a hard enough time telling me."

"No, no. It was right for you to tell her. She would have found out eventually, so now is as good of a time as any." She paused for a moment. "Is she afraid? I mean, she's not going to run off screaming, is she?"

"No, Ma. I don't think she will. She even said she'd rather be around mobsters that her own family. It had to be more than just what she's said. Or it was just so much over the years that she'd take whatever she could to get away from it all."

"Either that, or she knows we would never hurt her. And we would protect her, at all costs." She said, then started muttering, "Damn it, damn it, damn it. I knew we shouldn't have left. I should have made sure those guys kept a better eye on her. Why didn't I trust my gut?"

"No one would have been able to explain a guy keeping tabs on a teenage girl, without some questions. No could have known about Black unless she had gone to the hospital, which she didn't… She's terrified of men, Ma. The only men she trusts are me and Jazz. I haven't seen it firsthand, but she says that she flinches when she's around men, or if they touch her at all."

"I should have known better about her parents, too. Charlie was always an asshole, and Renee always expected her children to be perfect and not deviate from 'normal' behavior. I swear, that woman expected way too much of her kids when they were young. She was always worried that Bella wouldn't be 'normal', when she was just a shy little girl. And I'm guessing she never really helped Bella be comfortable in her own skin. Just made her feel worse. That was always her tactic with her. I could see it wearing on Bella, then." She sniffled, but continued. "Edward, please. I need to see my girl. I want you to bring her home so I can finally take care of her like she's needed all these years."

"I will, Ma. Look, I'm gonna get her some breakfast, I'm gonna go get changed, then we'll grab Jasper and head over there. Alice should be back with the kids by then. So don't worry. I'm gonna bring her home." I told her, hoping that it would actually be true, one day. This should be her home. My family's house should be her home.

"Ok. I've gotta go check on these guys working in the yard, but please hurry. And make sure you give her Rose and Alice's numbers. You know they would help her with her self confidence and dealing with her fears."

"I will, don't worry. See you soon, Ma." We hung up, and then I quickly called Alice to check on the kids.

"Hey, Ali. How are they this morning?" I asked when she answered the phone.

"Hey, E. They're doing great. We played some games last night after we ate, and they slept pretty well. We just got finished with breakfast a few minutes ago, and we're going to head back to Seattle, soon." She said, and then I heard her turn away from the phone and talk to the kids. "Hey guys, make sure we've got everything. All your clothes that you wore yesterday, and toothbrushes, and stuff, ok?" They must have nodded because she came back to talk to me. "I had to go to the store and get them some clothes and stuff last night. Do you know that there is almost nothing in this town but fishing, hunting, and camping stores, two clothing stores, and a single grocery store? This place is like a ghost town compared to Seattle or Chicago."

I laughed at her criticism. She was a girl of the city. Even if she was nothing like her parents.

"Really, Al? It's just a small town. There are lots of people that would prefer that to the big bad city. Just be glad it's not somewhere like Wyoming."

"Oh god, I think I'd die. I'm so used to the hustle and bustle, and smog, and people shoving each other on the streets trying to get to work. I don't think I could be away from it for too long." She was a character. And she really did love that about being in the city. It meant that people were out buying stuff and that meant that people would probably come into her store. "So what happened with that girl from yesterday? Jasper said he brought her back to Seattle last night with him." I heard a smidge of hurt in her voice.

"Alice, you remember us talking about Bella when we were growing up? That was her. It's a long story but I told Jasper to bring her back to the city because I got called back, and I was desperate to see her. So don't be mad at him. It was my request. And I could tell he's missed her about as much as I have. We were all really close when we lived here, before."

"I didn't know. All I know is that he was coming here; I didn't see him when he got here, and then he was on the road back to the city with a girl in tow. How do you think that makes me feel, Edward?" Now she really sounded hurt.

"Alice, you have nothing to worry about. You know Jazz loves you and he would never betray you. You know him better than that. Bella is like his sister." I told her, hoping she wouldn't go on a rampage later when she sees Bella.

"I know… You're right. Sorry, I just don't want to think of him doing shit like my dad did when I was growing up. I couldn't take that kind of hit." She said quietly.

"Ali, don't do this to yourself. You are so strong. One of the strongest people I know. You know how to handle yourself; you're always so happy, and vibrant. Don't let things that your asshole dad did worm its way through."

She sniffed a little at that. "You and Jazz always know how to get through to me. That's why I love you guys."

"Love you too, Al. Look, we're going to head over to mom and dad's in a little bit. Why don't you guys meet us over there? Ma wants to show the kids their new play area." I laughed at the last part.

"You got it. You know they asked about Bella several times last night? They seem to really like her." She finally had a smile back in her voice.

"Really? Wow. Maybe that's a good sign." I thought out loud.

"You never know. We'll leave as soon as we get all their stuff together. See you soon, Edward."

I ended the call with her, and not long after, I heard a buzz for someone to be let up to this level. I checked to make sure it was the food and opened the door when they reached it.

I was getting things set up when I felt eyes on me. I looked up and saw that Bella was looking at me with a smile on her face.

Maybe things are ok.

Then I looked at what she was wearing and almost groaned. She was wearing a sun dress that was incredibly stunning on her. Which, her body was just… fuckhot. Soft curves, beautiful shoulders, long, slender legs. Her long brown hair is down in slight curls down her back.

She's so beautiful.

When we sat down at the bar and started eating, we got to talking about stuff.

I don't know how many times I have to tell her there's no problem with her staying here. And I refuse to let her pay rent or anything like that.

But, I do have an idea that might appease her.

Having her here would help so much when we get called away to work. If Alice isn't here, or mom can't make it, I still have to have someone I can trust to watch Izzy and Mason. And her being 2 floors down would be great for that. And like I said before, I would trust her with my kids, in a heartbeat.

Maybe she'd be closer than two floors away, one day…

* * *

Ok, so I know some of you also didn't really like the fact that either Bella and Edward and Jasper are so close when they haven't been around each other for years, and that Bella and Edward's relationship/chemistry is too much, too soon. Guess what? It's fiction. It doesn't have to be based on everybody's outlook on relationships. But it's telling a story about how Bella is supposed to be a part of another family. That she is loved, and that she doesn't have to put up with her family's shit. Each chapter is going to get a little further along with her letting them in, and learning that she's worthy of love, especially from Edward. And that she can be a part of a family. So just read it, it's meant to be a love story, with some mafia fun in it.

Oky doky, until next week at MGEMP,

Laters!


	4. Chapter 4

Heya! I'm back!

I still can't believe the response to these stories. I know some people aren't reading this side of the story, but that's ok. They might when they get to a part that is utterly confusing to them, and be like, 'wtf is going on?'. Seriously, if you're reading this story and haven't read the other one yet, I don't know how you're not confused out of your mind. Lol

Anywhoozles, oh, I know this chapter is a bit shorter than the rest, but I don't want to get ahead of the other story, so I'm giving you what the other story has so far. No cheating! Well I coooouuuuullllddd….

Ok, you guys know by know that Lola is my beta, and favorite crazy Canadian :p hehe

And SM owns twi, not I.

Read on my peeps!

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EPOV

When Bella and I walked down to the garage, I start to grow concerned when she stopped so suddenly.

But then I see the light in her eyes when she's looking at the cars in front of her.

I've never seen a woman, other than Rosalie, with such an eye for amazing cars.

When she runs over to the Jaguar, I know it's something that would make her happy, and Jasper filled me in about her old truck she was driving around Forks. So, I decided to offer her the car to drive back and forth. Really, I'm just going to give it to her, because she deserves something nice to drive around. But for right now, she can think it's just a loan.

I would give that woman anything her heart desires, if it made her smile like that.

And I can't help but want to touch her all the time. I just want to wrap her up in my arms and never let her leave. I've lost too much time with her and I want to be as close as we used to be, maybe even more.

Once the three of us are in the Volvo, heading towards my parents' house, we fall into a comfortable silence, only with a few comments here and there.

When we're sitting at a stop light in town, I look over at Bella in the passenger seat, and she's got a contented smile on her face as she looks at the city around her.

Maybe this move will be just the thing she needs, if she decides to do it.

I see her fidgeting with her hands as we make our way into my parents' neighborhood. I'm tempted to reach over and grab her hand in mine, but I stop myself. I don't want to come off as clingy or it being too much for her. But sometimes, I just can't help it.

My mother's reaction is exactly what I thought it would be. The woman has missed Bella so much, and I'm not surprised when I see a few tears run down mom's face.

When mom and Bella walk ahead of us into the house, my dad is beside me, talking in a low voice.

"I want to know what's going on. Your mother only told me bits and pieces, but I want to hear it from either you or Bella. If Black's hurt someone in my family, I'm not above adding this to his crimes against us."

I just nodded at him, and walked towards the kitchen to tell mom and Bella where I'd be, while they walked up the stairs to dad's office.

Seeing Bella as happy as she's been today, makes my heart swell. She's not thinking about her family in Forks, she's not worried about work right now, she's not anxious or anything, and I don't see the fear in her eyes that I saw when she talked about Black, or the mafia stuff I explained. I did see her sidestep people on the way downstairs at the hotel, but she hasn't shown any of that here with my family.

And to see her laugh and joking around, just makes all the sad stuff seem distant.

But it's still there until we deal with it.

I make my own way up the stair to my dad's office, and find him and Jasper waiting for me.

Jasper is sitting in one of the chairs in front of dad's desk, and dad is leaning against the front of said desk, with a drink in his hand.

"So? Tell me what happened." Dad prompted me, as I sat down in the chair opposite of Jasper.

I took a deep breath and told him what Bella had told us last night about what Black did to her, and what's been going on with her family. Dad doesn't really say anything while I talk, and his face doesn't give anything away.

But when I'm done talking, he looks at the drink in his hand for a while, then turns and throws it as hard as he can against the wall, making the glass shatter.

"Damn it! I should have kept better tabs on her. Made sure someone kept an eye on Black, too. I knew he was a slimy little bastard, but at that age? He was eighteen and trying to force himself on my daughter? I should have fucking known he would do something stupid when we left. He always watched Bella when you all were little. He never approached her, but he kept his fucking eyes on her." Dad ranted, but he stopped and it looked like some of the color left his face.

"Dad? What the hell's wrong with you?" Jasper asked him.

Dad just buried his face in his hand and scrubbed it down his face.

"When you both were about eighteen, we got a message from the Blacks. I wasn't sure if it was Jacob or not, but it said 'you should really watch your pets a little better'. I had no clue what the fuck he was talking about, but now it makes since. He was taunting me. He remembered that we were here before and that Bella was always around us. He targeted her when he was old enough to start doing dealings with the family. Fuck! I'm gonna go kill him myself!" Dad told us, then walked around to the other side of his desk, and I knew he was going for his gun.

I got up and stopped him.

"Dad, don't. we can't just go over there like this and kill him on the spot. Besides, I already called dibs on the fucker. I want him to suffer for what he did to her. For the fear she's dealt with for the past eight years. We have to come up with a plan to get him away from the rest of the dogs, and torture his ass. I'm going to put him through fucking hell." I said in a no nonsense voice.

I want to watch that bastard slowly die.

Dad finally conceded and let it go, for now.

"Fine, but I'm going to be there. I want to watch that asshole suffer."

Jasper nodded his head in agreement.

"So she knows about our family, then?" Dad asked, and I nodded in response. "Does she know about the Black's?"

That's one thing I hadn't told her yet; that the Black's are mafia, too. And our enemies.

"No, I haven't told her yet. But I will. I didn't think it would be the best idea to throw that on her on top of everything else I told her last night. But I'll tell her tonight." I told him.

He nodded, then looked down at his watch.

"Why don't you go check on the progress of dinner and let us know." He said, looking at me. Then turned to Jasper. "Can you look over those papers real quick, before you leave tonight?" And Jasper nodded to him, and got up to grab a stack of papers off the desk.

I walk back down the stairs and make my way to the kitchen.

As I get close to the archway into the kitchen, I can hear my mom and Bella talking. I looked around the corner and they were totally oblivious to my presence.

"Sweetie, my son is a creature of habit. Once he's committed, he's _committed_." Mom said, then picked up the locket that was around Bella's neck. "This was the start of a commitment. When I took him to the jewelry store, the week before we left, I saw a look in his eyes. A look that said he was loosing the best thing in his life. Money, a big house, any amount of friends, would never replace the one thing that he loved dearly. He even had it written on here." She flipped it over in her hand where I remember asking her if I could have 'Ti amo' written on it. "He was telling you then that he would always love you. And I know he did. You were all he could ever talk about when we were here. And then when we left, he would always stare at one of the pictures I had taken of you that sat on the table by his bed. He still has it.

"Bella, I know you've been hurt. But you need to let him in. Let your guard down a little. Not everyone is going to hurt you, honey. You know that man would never even consider hurting you. You are too important to him."

I saw a bit of shock come across Bella's face. She really didn't get what she meant to me.

"I'll try to. I'm just… scared. What if I'm not good enough for him? What if I screw things up so badly that he'll never want to see me again?" Bella said in a small voice.

I decided I needed to step in and stop her worry.

"That would never happen." I said in a strong voice, hoping she understood that I was serious.

She needed to understand, once and for all, that she _is_ worthy, that she _is_ beautiful. I want her confidence to be built up, not crushed all to hell. She can't keep thinking that she's not good enough to be treated like the amazing woman that she is.

"Bella, how could you even think that you wouldn't be good enough?" I asked as I came around to the other side of the island.

"Edward, do you really have to as-"

"Yes, I do." I cut her off. I need her to know this. "Do you have any idea, any concept at all, how important you are to me?" She shook her head. "Just remembering you, when we were back in Chicago, brought a smile to my face. I think of you and my heart swells. And just seeing your beautiful face now, makes me forget about my lifestyle. Even for a moment, because when I look at you, I don't want to think about anything else. I just want to take in this gorgeous face and memorize every single feature of it. I don't want to rush you into anything. But I do want to try. I've lost so much time with you, and I want to get to know you again. Learn everything about you."

When she finally relented, I was so happy. Because now I knew that I wasn't completely alone in my feelings, even if I felt more for her than she did for me. But I will make sure she knows, in time.

As I heard the kids run through the front door, I knew we wouldn't be able to talk until later, so I made my way to the front hall.

When Mason and Izzy saw me, they both ran over and hugged me as tightly as the could.

I really dread the day when they won't want to hug me like this anymore, but I'm gonna soak these moments up, as best I can.

"Hey, did you guys have fun with aunt Ali?" I asked when they pulled back.

"Yeah! I've never been to a town so small before, daddy. But we met a really sweet lady. I wish you coulda met her. She was so pretty. Wasn't she, Mason?" Izzy said, and I knew she was talking about Bella.

"Well, you know what? I bet if you both go into the kitchen, you might be surprised." I smiled at them, and saw them look at each other, before they took off running towards the kitchen.

When I heard 'Bella! Bella!' I just smiled. I hoped they would always like her this much, if we do try for a relationship. Those kids need some sort of motherly figure in their lives, other than their grandmother.

I was a little worried when I saw that they had tackled her to the ground. I know she said she didn't like people touching her, but she seems to be ok around my family. And I can't help but wonder if maybe we're going to be able to get her through her funk of being so skidish.

But seeing the three of them together, giggling and smiling without a care, I just melt. It's so good to see them with her, that I know I'm going to work my ass off to make sure they have more moments like this.

"We missed you, Bella! We asked aunt Ali if we could see you again before we left Forky, but she said you were here with daddy, Uncle Jazzy, and Namie and PopPop. Are you gonna stay? We want you to stay! Daddy can she stay with us?" They both kept throwing out question after question.

Not sure why Mason calls it 'Forky', but I'm not asking. He comes up with the craziest stuff sometimes.

"Woah, woah, woah, you guys. Give her some air. We'll answer your questions, but I think Namie said that lunch is just about ready, so why don't you both go wash up and see if you can round up PopPop and Uncle Jazz." I told them as I scooped up Mason up over my head, him squealing.

They both ran off to the front hall, looking for my mother so they could get washed up.

"You ok? I'm sorry about them. They're usually better behav-… nope, you know, that's about how they usually are. But it does shock me that they took to a virtual stranger so well." I asked her, hoping she wasn't freaked out about the kids behavior.

"I'm more than ok. This all just solidifies my decision to stay. I'd rather make a life here, where I'm wanted, than go back to Forks where there's nothing left for me." She said, and I couldn't help but smile.

"I'm glad. We've got a lot of catching up to do, my dear. And I plan on spending whatever time I can get with you." I said as I leaned down to kiss her cheek.

"I'm gonna go find Esme and see if she's willing to help me with a few decorating things for my suite. If you don't mind, that is."

"Do what ever you want with it. It's your area." I said as I made my way over to the refrigerator to get the drinks ready for dinner.

I heard her walk down the hall, and then,

"_MA!"_

Damn. I hope that's a regular occurrence. And someday, hopefully she will become Esme's daughter…. in-law.

* * *

Alrighty. This gave just a tiny bit more with Edward's side, but next chapter, we start getting somewhere with the mob stuff. *rubs hands together and laughs* hehehehehehe

Sooo, oh, I know some of my readers posted this story's link on fb, which I really appreciate. I'm gonna go put both on there at some point. F.Y.I., you can find some of the best stories by going on some of these pages on facebook, or by some other readers' pages and seeing what their favs are. That's what I do most of the time. I love to know what everyone is reading. So, if any of you have come across some awesome stories, hit me with them. I love to add stories to my reading list. (if I can ever get to it, that is. Lol)

Ok, laters!


	5. Chapter 5

HIIIIIIIIIII!

Can I just tell you guys how much I love y'all! Especially you guys, since you're reading both stories, and keeping up with my insanity:p I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the reviews and favorites and follows that I get with these stories. It makes my day *Big smile!*

So, side note; wtf is with the scandal? I smell publicity stunt. I'll tell you why; no tinted windows, and it was too easy to get those shots. That's just my opinion, I know everyone else has their own, but come on. Why the fuck would you cheat when you've got rob? That just boggles me. And with a guy that could be your dad. Fuck and no!

Alright, my rant for the week is done.

As per usual, Lola is my awesome beta, and it's been almost a week since I've talked to her*sad face* her internet is down, so no pep talk from my beta this week.

And SM owns twi, I don't. *even bigger sad face*

Alright, get to reading!

* * *

EPOV

I couldn't believe my own kids sold me up the river so they could both sit next to Bella.

_Little traitors._

But I guess I couldn't blame them. She was so easy to be around, and you couldn't help but love her.

_Now I sound like a pussy. But it's true._

And I did a little fist pump in my head when one of Bella's favorite ticklish spots, for me anyways, was still just as ticklish.

I used to love to tease her about that because she was so cute when she squealed after I made my attack on the sides of her middle back.

The kids ended up showing Bella that they're, more or less, very animated whenever the mood arises. Especially at the dinner table. But they mostly just reserve that behavior for me and my family.

I just about kicked Alice under the table when I saw her give Bella an appraising eye. She knew who Bella was, and what she was to us. So there was no reason to act like she was a complete outsider.

But I guess to Alice, she kind of was.

She still didn't have to be like that…

Although, she did turn her attitude around when she went to the living room with mom and Bella. She wanted to help with Bella's suite, and really, anytime that Alice can get involved with fashion or anything related to it, she's all over it.

I took that time, after we cleaned up the kitchen, to check on the kids.

Mom had a huge play area made for the kids in the back yard. There was a huge tree house, which really looked like a mini cabin, situated up in between two trees that were in the back yard. It was up about six feet off the ground, with stairs that you would see going up to a regular house, going up the side and landing you on a deck around the tree house. There were even railings around the deck. There was also a large hunter green slide coming down from the tree house to the ground. A set of swings was off to one side of it, and a gauntlet type of setup under the tree house, itself. Mom even put a stone path from the main house, to the tree house.

I was fucking slack jawed when I first saw the thing. It was one of the coolest damn things I've ever seen. And made me want to be the one that was six again so I could go play in it.

Bella and I would have had a field day with something like this when we were the kids' age.

The tree house we had in our back yard when Jasper and I were little was nothing compared to this one.

Mason and Izzy could be heard giggling and laughing from inside the tree house. I just smiled, knowing that they were having a ball up there. They may never want to go home with me.

I walked up to dad's office, again, and they were both looking over some papers that looked like they were for one of the warehouses we acquired.

"What's up?" I asked as I walked over to the desk.

"We need to get some people to talk. There are some sketchy things going on at the docks, where our warehouses are, and I don't want shit to get out of hand, there. Gotta stay on top of things. So, let's make a few calls, make sure everyone's on top of their game, and see who's not. Hopefully we won't run into a problem." I nodded at dad and we set to work.

Looking at what dad and Jasper were going over, I understand his reasoning. A couple of our guys had been going and checking on the warehouses at the docks, randomly, to make sure there haven't been any problems, or that no one's been snooping around.

But, when a couple of the guys that were checking noticed that the warehouses were unlocked a few times, it threw up some red flags. So, they quietly let us know what they found.

So now, what we were going to do was to call the people that have access to the warehouses, and find out what they know, and make regular inquiries. Hoping not to tip them off.

And if need be, we'll go stake out the warehouses and see who's fucking around with our shit.

After we've talked to a few of our guys, we're still not exactly sure who it is that's been messing around. We've narrowed it down, but we still can't pinpoint the main person or persons.

"Now, I guess we're going to have to go down and see if anyone shows up tonight. I'm hoping we can get this figured out, quickly, but I don't want to get my hopes up. This could end up taking several days. I hope you guys didn't have plans tonight." Dad explained, and I really wish this wasn't happening while Bella was in town. But I guess it'd be inevitable. I just wanted a weekend to spend with her. I sound like a God damn child, but whatever.

After we made our plans to go down to the docks, and went over our other business that had to be taken care of, we made our way back downstairs where the women were.

I was more than a little shocked to see Bella and Alice with an arm around each other.

"Ok, what'd we miss?" I mean, cuz seriously, with the way Alice was acting earlier, I wouldn't have thought they were best friends yet.

"Nothing. Just getting to know Bella a little better." Alice said, and it seemed like she really had lost all of the animosity I'd heard earlier from her.

Thank God.

"Umm, we have to go to work. I'm not sure when we'll be back. Bella, if you guys just want to stay here, with mom and the kids, that's fine. I know mom would love to have you all to herself." I told her, hoping to not bring any worry into what I was really telling her. That it was mob work, and I'd probably end up hurting someone tonight.

But when she saw Alice go over and hug Jasper goodbye, I could tell she knew what it meant.

They did that every time he went off to work, because she was scared that he wouldn't come back and she wanted to make sure he knew she loved him before he left.

I've never had that from anyone, except my mother.

"Hey, don't worry too much. We're trying to make our mark around here. Let the underworld of Seattle know that we're here to stay and that we're going to fight, tooth and nail, to be the top family. We'll be back later." I tried to reassure her.

"You promise, you'll be back?" I could hear the shaking in her voice, and it made my heart ache a little.

I hated to see her worry so much.

"Promise." I told her in a strong voice.

I wanted to make sure she knew I meant it, so I took her pinky in mine, and kissed her cheek.

Not quite the pinky promises we would share as kids. Still playful, but also something for just the two of us that we would never share with another soul. I wanted to make this our way of showing a promise to each other.

It would be something that I would gladly do every time I had to go like this. Hopefully soon, it would be on the lips.

But I'll wait until she's ready for that.

Dad, Jasper and I headed out to the garage and got in the large silver suburban, making sure we have any weapons we need from the hidden storage locker, with ear pieces to communicate, and drive towards the warehouses.

"You called Eleazar, Tyler, and Eric, right?" Dad asked as we pulled into the warehouse, so we could watch from the inside.

"Yeah. They said they would be watching in the other warehouse. You know Uncle Ty was pissed when I called. He can't stand it when we have a rat in the business. Says it's a waste of perfectly good man power when we have to kill the rat and find a new person. He wanted to know 'what happened to loyalty to the family?' I just told him that things aren't like they always were. More and more people start working for the other families or working for themselves, while they're supposedly working for you. You have to watch what you say, and who you say it to. Most guys that come to work for us are looking to make a quick buck. So, when they've done that, they wander off to 'greener pastures'. No fucking loyalty, to no one." I told him, getting out and finding our spots to setup our watch points.

Dad went to setup by the front door, Jasper went up to the top landing that went around the whole building on the inside, but could still see out at several points. And I went to the back door.

'Apollo, you got us?' I heard through my ear piece from my uncle Tyler.

We went with code names to make sure no one was catching on to who was there, especially if it wasn't someone who was a close member of the family. Only family had code names. But family was the only ones that knew that.

'Yeah Scorpion. Setup and let us know what you think.' I relayed back to him.

Uncle Tyler was our mom's brother. Along with Uncle El. Uncle El and Ty both knew about the family when they were younger, and when Mom started dating dad, they thought it would help keep her safe if they joined the family business.

And if you couldn't trust family, you couldn't trust anyone.

Eric was our cousin; Uncle Ty's son. They all used to live with us in Chicago, but they made the move to Seattle for the business. So did several other members of our family that we trusted. Some stayed behind with Uncle Ed and Emmett, though.

We did have some more family coming in from Italy to work for us. Guys that wanted to leave the old country and work for THE Family. The Cullen family.

Yeah, we were very well known back in Italy. That's where it all started with our great, great grandfather. But some of the men had proven themselves and were getting lined up to get their visas to get into the country, become citizens, and such. We weren't going to get hackled by the cops for technicalities with the paperwork.

We stayed put and waited until night fell. I was hoping that we could get this taken care of tonight so I could go back and spend some time with Bella.

I missed her already.

As we waited, and listened, I started mentally preparing myself.

I try not to bring home the 'mobster'. I don't want Izzy and Mason to see me as a cut-throat asshole. I was a dad, first and foremost. My kids and their safety were the first thing that I thought about, everyday.

But when I was working, I had to put the dad side of me to the back, and get the job done. I have to be cut-throat, I have to be ruthless, and I have to be the asshole that nobody likes. You don't get respect from these kinds of people unless you demand it.

I pulled my phone out to check the time; it was a little after ten. But I noticed that I had a message from mom.

As I pulled it up, a huge smile came over my face.

It was a picture of Bella, with her arm around a sleeping Izzy. Izzy was curled up into Bella's side, with her arm around Bella's waist. Bella was holding a book, so I guess they talked her into reading to them tonight. But the way they were together, made you think that Izzy was her daughter. The serene look on both of their faces was like nothing else. Like Bella had a bond to her that was only for them.

I knew the two of them would be really close with each other.

"What's with the face, bro?" I heard Jasper ask from over head. He was making the rounds on the upper level.

"Just a picture mom sent me of Bella and Izzy. The way they look together, just makes them look like they were made to be together."

"Maybe they were. They've never had a mother. Maybe Bella could be that for them one day." He said as he started walking further along.

We went back to waiting after that.

After a couple more hours, we got word from the other warehouse about what they were seeing.

'Apollo, uh, we've got a pup pissing on our lawn.' I heard from uncle Ty.

This meant that one of Black's guys was snooping.

I may have growled a little bit. That's all we fucking need, is one of Black's little peons messing with our shit.

'See if you can help him out.' I told him back; telling him to get whoever it was into the warehouse and wait for me.

A few moments later, Jasper came over the ear piece.

'Rat in the wall.'

'Who?' I asked him, wanting to know who we had to deal with, and how harshly.

'Brady.'

That little shit. He was supposed to be trustworthy. He actually came with us from Chicago, but I guess we're gonna have to go through our ranks and make sure there are no others that are gonna turn on us. Because, clearly, he's helping Black and his band of pups.

We wait further, seeing if he'll come into the warehouse.

And after about three minutes, we finally hear the door at the front unlock and see the silhouette of a tallish man quickly make his way in.

The warehouse is very dimly lit, but there is enough light for you to see in front of you after your eyes adjust.

I can just barely see his face as he starts forward closer to the lone light source.

But I can also see my dad still standing at his stationed spot, watching Brady.

Once Brady has stopped and looked around, dad started walking towards him from behind.

"I'm very disappointed in you right now, Brady." Dad says in an all too calm voice.

Brady jumps slightly, not expecting anyone to be here.

_Stupid fucker._

Brady is in his mid twenties, pretty well built, tan skin, dark brown hair.

"Carlisle, I didn't know you'd be out here, tonight. I was just checking up on things for you." I could tell he was lying. He had his hands behind his back, which was facing my way now, and he kept flexing his left hand. He was trying to get his nervous energy out, and not let dad know that he was fidgeting.

He also forgot that this was the Cullens he was dealing with. We don't go into something like this with just one man. He should have known this when he decided to try to hide his tell.

I heard the cocking of a gun from right above me, and knew Jasper was letting Brady know that he was in for it. He was making sure the gun made enough noise to make Brady squirm, a little. Maybe he'd start talking.

I saw Brady flinch at the sound, and chuckled. Fucker knew he got caught, and didn't have long to live.

"You know, we don't tolerate rats in the family, Brady. Especially rats that we trusted to move with us from Chicago, and work with us in a new city. You were chosen to come with us. If we had known you'd do this shit, we would have either left your ass in Chicago, or just shot you, already." I said from my spot, as I started to move forward.

He whipped his head around to my general direction, and I saw fear in his eyes.

He now knew he was in major shit with Jasper and me being here.

"I didn't do anything. I was just out doing a check-" Brady tried to defend himself, but Jasper fired a warning shot from a silencer, by his head. "Shit!"

"Brady, don't even try to fuck around with us. You're one of the ones we don't have a count for over the past few weeks, when people have checked these warehouses, and found them unlocked. I've had guys check and make sure nothing's been messed with, and nothing's missing. So far, nothing's come up. This works in your favor, slightly." Dad said, bringing a chair over to sit Brady in. "Take a seat."

Brady gulped, then, hesitantly, sat down in the chair.

"I suggest you start talking now, or die slowly and painfully." Dad said from behind Brady.

He starts looking around, at me, trying to see where Jasper is, but Jasper is up top, where he can't be easily seen.

But he stays quiet. I can tell he's thinking about whether or not to tell us anything.

"Brady, you know you're gonna end up dead. Your only decision now is whether you die redeeming yourself, or as a coward. You've got two minutes." Dad tells him, and stands back to wait.

We all stand there, and wait, watching Brady go back and forth with whether he's going to tell us anything. It gets to almost the two minute mark, and I've had about enough.

I walk over to him, and punch him in the jaw, hearing a slight crunch from it, and the scream of pain from Brady.

That hurt like a son of a bitch, but I'll ice my hand. It's nothing I can't deal with.

"I think it's best if you speak now. Edward's patience will only go so far, and mine's not far behind. So, you can start with who the pup is that's wandering around the other warehouse." Dad says, as he comes around to the front of where Brady's sitting.

Brady sits up a little and starts talking. "It's Seth. He wanted to do some intel, and came to me. Said that the Blacks were looking for anything they could get a leg up on you guys with, since the Cullens were 'encroaching' on their turf."

"So you just willingly gave up that information to him? Are you that much of a pushover?" I asked, not yet seeing why we even brought his ass with us.

"No. Seth threatened my daughter. My ex and I aren't together anymore, and she has custody of her. Seth said if I didn't help them, they'd go after Maggie and Emily. They're still in Chicago and I can't do much to protect them from here. Mag refused to move out here. Look, I'm sorry. I just didn't want anything to happen to Emily." He said the last part as he looked down.

I kind of had to feel for him, in the fact that he wanted to protect his daughter, but I think he could have found a better way to protect them and not screw us over.

"Do you think that justifies turning on a family that has taken care of you and you've worked for, for so long? Or did you think we were stupid enough that someone wouldn't notice and it get back to us? You're out of your damn mind if you think we're not going to figure it out. We're not some half rate mafia. We were the biggest family in Chicago, now we're looking to take over Seattle. The Blacks think their invincible, but Jacob Black has a shit storm coming his way that he won't even see coming. He fucked with the wrong person, and he's going to pay for it. He got away with it for too many years, and I'm going to make sure he knows who he's really messing with." I told him in a menacing voice, wanting to go out and rip Jacob to shreds right now.

"Look, what was I suppose to do? You know you'd do the same thing if it was Mason and Izzy-" Brady started, but I was not having this.

"YOU SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH! Don't you dare bring them into this! You could have protected Maggie and Emily if you had just come to us! You know we protect our own! Emmett could have personally gone and gotten Maggie and Emily somewhere safe. But you decided to go along with Black, and betray the people you worked for. You know that's an unforgivable thing in our business." I turned and walked a safe distance away, because I didn't feel like getting blood on my clothes from what was about to happen.

I heard the slight pops of Jasper's gun, and when I turned around, there were several shots in his body. Three in his torso, two in his legs and one in his arm. Yeah, he was going to die from a bleed out.

Brady was screaming like a dying animal.

I hit the ear piece to check in with the guys in the other warehouse.

'Scorpion, what'd you have?'

I waited for a moment for the response.

"Need instructions for what to do about the pup.'

I knew we needed to send a message to Black, but I also have to worry about whatever retaliation he may bring on my family. Especially when I've got the kids and Bella to worry about. But I'm going to make sure they're well protected.

'Scuffle him and let him go. The rat is getting flushed down the drain.' Jasper told uncle Ty as I watched Brady start to squirm a bit.

Brady wasn't able to move much since the amount of bullets in him was enough to send anyone into shock. Which looked like it was coming pretty soon for him.

'Got it, Black Hawk.' I heard from uncle Ty before it went silent on his end.

"You sure letting him go is the best idea?" I asked as Jasper made his way down to our level.

"We need to send a message to Black. He needs to know that if he messes with us, then he's in for a hell of a ride. I'm not gonna make it easy for him." Jazz said, and then turned to my dad for his opinion. He just nodded slightly, which I took as confirmation.

"Ok. I just don't have a good feeling about letting him go. I think Seth has something to do with Bella, and I don't want him finding out about her, and them coming after her." I said to him when he was by my side.

"We'll protect her. Hopefully he's not stupid enough to come after her. Knowing Uncle Ty, they won't let Seth off easily. He could end up begging for death by the time they're done." Jasper smirked at me.

God I hope he's right.

After a while and finally seeing Brady's body go completely limp, we called in the cleanup team. It shouldn't take too long to get things taken care of, so we could get home.

It was about two-thirty a.m. when we walked in the front door of mom and dad's house.

Mom was sitting at the island in the kitchen with three water bottles and, what looked like juice in a mug that she was drinking from.

She always said that juice calmed her if she was worried about us when we worked.

"I was going to head upstairs in a half hour if you boys hadn't come back yet. Good news is that there's nothing else to unpack." She told us as she handed us all water, and we downed it quickly.

"Thanks ma." Jasper said, kissing her cheek, and then walked off to go upstairs to his and Alice's room so he could get some sleep.

"She's asleep in your room, sweetie." Mom said, with a knowing look, and damn it if she didn't know what I was thinking.

"Thanks ma. Night." I kissed her cheek, too, and made my way to my own room.

I took my shirt off as I went up the stairs, and when I got to my room, I saw Bella asleep in my bed, wearing one of my t-shirts.

That just made me smile.

I ran to the bathroom to get a quick shower to get the funk off of me, and put on some boxers and a t-shirt.

Sliding into bed behind Bella, I felt her stir and saw her head turn to look back at me.

"Shh, it's just me, sweet B. Go back to sleep." I whispered to her, getting myself closer to her, and wrapping my arm around her waist. I breathed in the sweet scent of her hair and just her, and felt the stress from tonight start to lift.

She was the perfect remedy. I'm never letting her go.

* * *

Ok, so let me clear something up, real quick, before some of you start asking; 'why does Edward always call Bella, B?'. Well, simple answer; it's so he can refer to her as Bella or Beauty. Just shortened, and it kills 2 birds with 1 stone.

k, now that that's cleared up, who was glad to see a little mafia action? Hmmmm? I know I was.

So, until next week at MGEMP, I'm gonna go see my Bella, and spend some time with her. And I'll see you next week!

Laters!


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys!

I know, it's been a couple of weeks for this story, but at least you got 2 weeks worth of MGEMP. So no complaining:p

Like I've said before, there probably will be weeks like that where I don't have enough for this story, and if I have enough written for the other one, I'll post an extra chapter like I did last week. But there may be times where neither of them are ready, and I may just miss a week with this one, and stay with the regular schedule on the other.

Hope that makes sense.

Anyways, so this chapter covers the last 2 of MGEMP. I'm working on 7 now, so it should be done on schedule. At least I hope.

SM owns twilight, I don't, sadly.

Read on!

* * *

EPOV

I don't know how the hell I'm gonna sleep without Bella this week. Or the weeks after she gets back.

I know she'll be close, but it won't be the same as having her in bed with me.

Maybe we can have nights where she'll stay at my place and we'll have 'sleepovers' with the kids.

_But I'm kicking those two out of my bed though… Bed hogs…_

I could tell though, that her comfort level was growing when we woke up the next morning.

I know it bothered her a little that my little problem was poking her in the ass, but she pushed whatever discomfort away.

_She didn't push 'it' away though… that's a good thing, right?_

But when she called me her protector again, and said herself that I could never hurt her, I just had the overwhelming urge to kiss her.

And I did.

I couldn't stop myself, as I slowly bent my head, keeping my eyes on hers, and peck her lips with mine.

_So soft and warm._

I was scared that she would finally freak out and push me away, but the smile that she gave me, lit up her whole face.

She was so damn beautiful.

And then she had to go and freak out about my hand being a little battered.

I mean, it's nothing compared to some of the shit that's happened to me… but I better not tell her that. She'd have a god damn kitten if she knew that shit.

But I did make sure she knew that my hand was fine, other than a little broken skin. It was a little sore, but it's nothing I can't handle.

When we were getting ready to eat breakfast and Bella had turned her back to me, I noticed, what looked like, a bird on her back, between her shoulder blades. I saw some writing too, but didn't look long enough to see exactly what it said.

She's definitely going to tell me what that's all about when we're alone.

Leaving mom and dad's, seemed both normal and a little sad. Sad, because I knew Bella wasn't happy about going back to Forks. She didn't seem like she wanted to cross paths with her parents.

And normal, because it was like ma said earlier; we all just seemed to fall back into a routine, like no time had passed.

Dropping Bella off on her floor and going up to ours, I let us in and the kids run off to their rooms.

I busy myself getting some stuff cleaned up while I've got a few minutes. When you've got two kids, you take whatever time you're given to get shit cleaned, or to take a breather.

While I'm in the process, I give Rosalie a call, too.

"_Yello?"_ Oh dear God, she's been hanging around Emmett too damn long.

"Hey, Rosie. You got a sec?"

"_E, you're lucky I love you like a brother, because I wouldn't let you get away with that shit, otherwise."_ Heheh, yeah she hates when people call her 'Rosie'.

"I know, but I've got a favor to ask."

"_Spill it. I'm all ears." _She says, and I can hear her move some stuff around, and finally settle.

I sigh. I hate telling this shit. "Well, do you remember us talking about a girl named Bella, from when we lived in Washington, before?"

"_Yeah, sure."_

"Well, we kind of caught up with her this weekend." I went on to tell her everything that happened with Bella since we got here. "Rose, she's been through some shit, like you were, and it's been eating her up for years. It's like a mix of you and Ali. She was almost raped, and her family doesn't give a shit about her."

"_Oh my God, Edward. How has she been around you all, though? I mean, is she freaking out, or is she just guarded?"_ She asked, and I knew what she was getting at.

"No, she's not that freaked out around us. But I did notice her flinch some when we walked down to the garage. She doesn't like being around guys, or people, that make her uncomfortable. I know that if she comes across Jacob Black that she more than likely will. I'm going to try to avoid that, at all costs. But I wanted you to talk to her. Tell her your story. Maybe help her work through her fears. I know we'll probably have to do some of the same things we did with you, but I want her to work up to it."

"_No I don't think she's ready for a gun quite yet, Edward. But yeah, I'll talk to her. She needs someone that's been through it to talk it out with. There's only so much that you or her friends could understand about her situation. Ali should be able to help her a lot, too. Give me her number and I'll either call her this week, or get her to call me. Tell me when she works." _I gave her Bella's information and told her that Bella mostly works late afternoons and nights, since she works in a bar. _"Edward, just don't make her uncomfortable. Women that have something like that happen to them, tend to shut down in situations where they aren't comfortable, or they feel anxious. You don't want her to close herself off, and no one's able to help her. If she does come across Black, she needs to be prepared." _

"Thanks, Ro." I give a sigh, because I hate that either of these girls have to deal with this type of shit. They didn't deserve this. "Any help you can give, would be greatly appreciated. I just want her to come away from all of this as well as you did."

"_E, don't make me jump through the phone and hurt you."_ I heard her sniffle a little.

I ended the call with her soon after, and got back to cleaning up the house.

The kids run into the kitchen and living room a few times, asking when Bella will be back, and I keep telling them she'll be here soon.

Man, when those kids want something, they're fucking impatient.

One of the times they came in to ask me, I stopped them before they left.

"Hey, you guys really like Bella, don't you?" I asked them while they watched me clean up the counter.

They both nodded, very enthusiastically. "Yeah, daddy. We love her. She's so fun, and really sweet. I think everyone in our family loves her too. Daddy, do you love her?" Izzy asked, and I wasn't sure if I should tell them yes, or hold off. They could go off and start telling their aunt and uncle, and Namie and PopPop. I don't need them breathing down my neck.

I took a deep breathe and told them. "Of course I do. How could I not?"

"She's gonna stay though, right? She's not gonna go back to Forky and stay there forever, is she?" Mason asked, and I still can't help but chuckle a little at the fact that he's still calling it 'Forky'.

"She will, but she's got to go back tonight. She has to pack her things so that she can move in to her place downstairs. She'll be back, probably on Friday. Can you guys wait that long for her to come back?"

Again, they both nod. "Can she move in here, with us? I really want her to stay with us so we can see her all the time." Izzy asks.

_Oh lord._

"Honey, no, she can't. She has her own place. And you can go down and see her. She won't be far away. I promise."

It was a little while later that I heard the knock at the door.

Followed by squealing from the kids.

I think they were slightly excited that she was here.

I watched them drag her off to their rooms while she had a look of 'oh my god, why aren't you helping me'. But she took it in stride. Those two absolutely loved Bella. It was so weird to see them this attached already.

It was also heart warming.

I knew she would be fine with them, so I busied myself with looking for something for dinner tonight.

I kept hearing the kids and Bella laughing, but I also kept hearing something ringing. I knew it wasn't my phone, cuz I've got a different ringtone, but I was still hearing something.

I looked around the living room, and finally spot Bella's phone on the table. She must have dropped it on the table when the kids dragged her through the living room. I noticed the name on the incoming call was Renee, but I wasn't sure if Bella wanted to take it.

It looks like she's called a few times, so I think I need to go get Bella. It could be important.

As I walk down the hall toward the kids' rooms, I can hear them talking.

"Bella?" I hear Izzy's little voice as I stop outside the doorway.

"Yes, sweetheart?" Bella answers her, and I can't help but love how caring and sweet Bella is with them.

And I am totally at a loss at what comes out of her mouth next.

"Will you be our mom?"

_Oh holy fucking shit…_

I knew the kids really liked Bella, but to ask her to be their mother? I didn't think they felt that strongly for her.

But apparently I missed something.

I see Bella look over to where I am in the doorway, and she's just as at a loss for words as I am. It takes her a few moments to even come up with anything.

"Umm, sweetie, I think that's gonna be up to your daddy. I can't just say that I'll be your mom. I mean you've only known me for a couple of days. You may not like me in a week or a month" She tells them, but Izzy just shakes her head.

_Stubborn child!_

"No, I will. Don't you love us?" Oh, nice, Izzy. Lay on the guilt, why don't ya.

But Bella seems to be immune to the face.

"Oh don't give me that face. And of course I love you both. I don't know how it's possible to love two people so quickly, but I do. It's not my decision to make, though." I know she's trying to let them down easily, but I need to step in and help her out here. Because I need to let her know where I stand on this.

"Iz, honey come here." I told her, walking in and sitting on the floor, and she comes to sit in my lap. "Why all of a sudden do you want a mom?" I ask, because they've never really said anything about wanting a mom in the past. Maybe once or twice, they asked about their 'mother', but nothing like this.

I see Bella stand and point to the door, telling me she'll be outside. I don't really mind her being here, but I can feel that Izzy wants to tell me something. I don't know why she feels like she can't say this in front of Bella since she just asked her to be their mother, but I'll go with it.

"Daddy, I don't want you to be sad anymore. And Bella makes you happy. You smile all the time when she's around. And me and Mason love her. She's nice, she plays with us, she doesn't always treat us like kids. She treats us like a friend. But, daddy, we don't want you to be alone. Namie and PopPop have each other, and Uncle Em and Rosie, and Uncle Jazz and Aunt Alice. Daddy, you need someone to love you."

I'm completely shocked at what she's saying. I never thought either of them would think that I'm lonely, or that they weren't enough to fulfill my life. And I didn't think that they could ever tell that I was sad that I didn't have Bella, or any other woman in my life after what happened with Irina.

I guess kids really are more observant that people give them credit for.

"Aww, sweetie, I didn't mean to make you feel like I'm sad all the time. How could I, when I've got the two of you?" I laugh, lightly. "But, baby, this is something Bella and I are going to have to work out, together. It'll take some time. But that doesn't mean that you can't think of her as a mother figure." I see Bella standing just outside the door, and she gives a slight nod. But I can tell she has a bit of a shocked look on her face. "And I'm sure you can go to her for anything if you want to talk to someone other than me. And you know what? From what I understand, you guys are getting a room in Bella's suite, downstairs. So, I think, if you ask nicely sometime, then Bella might let you stay with her for a night." I look back to Bella for confirmation, which she nods again. "Why don't we start out with that, and we'll see where things go. But I don't want you to pressure her, ok? Bella… needs some time to heal."

And now, she's completely worried. "Is she sick? Daddy, you have to make her better. I don't want her to be sick."

"No, honey, she's not sick. But-" I start, but Bella walks back in to the room slowly, and sits with us, and she cuts off my explanation.

"I've got some things I need to work through, Izzy. Some things happened a while back, and I need to not feel like they're going to come back and haunt me. You know like ghosts and stuff? Well, these are different kinds of ghosts, for me. Things that are part of my past that aren't nice or friendly, and I've got to get to where I'm not afraid of them anymore. Maybe then, I'll feel like I'm worthy to be a mother figure to you and Mason. And hopefully by then, your daddy and I will still be ok, and we'll talk about where we go from there. But I will be here for you, for whatever you might need. I'm not going anywhere. As soon as I've gotten everything moved in to my place, you'll be able to come see me whenever you want."

Mason goes and sits in her lap and hugs her, tightly.

They just fit together. Like a mother and child should. A lot like the picture that mom sent me last night of Bella and Izzy.

Walking back to the kitchen, I try to find the words to talk to her about this. But how do you do that when your kids ask someone they've only known a few days if they'll be their mother?

I go with the reason I went to find her in the first place. That seemed like a good place to start.

Giving her phone back, and hearing that her dad knows she's moving, doesn't sit well. The guy seems to be a total dickhead, and doesn't think she should have any other life, except for taking care of _his_ wife. I'm with Bella on that point; he's the one that vowed to love and honor her, in sickness and in health. This seems like a damn good example of the term 'sickness'.

I would understand if Charlie wasn't living, or they were divorced, but Bella said that they stayed together because Charlie said he'd feel like a complete ass if he just up and divorced his sick wife.

…But he still won't care for her… Fucker.

"I'm sorry about that, in there." I point back towards the kids' rooms. "I had no idea they would ask you that, and I didn't mean to assume that you would automatically say yes to… being whatever kind of motherly role I told them you would be. You can say no to it."

"Edward, it's ok. I _do_ love those two, and I want to do whatever I can to ease their minds if they ever need anything. But… can we talk about whatever this is between us?" She says, motioning between us, and I know that now is probably the most opportune time to tell her this. She needs to know before she leaves. I can't not tell her anymore.

Running my fingers through my hair, I look her in the eyes, "B, I want to be with you. I want to help you heal. I want to be able to go out on a date with you. I want to be able to kiss you anytime I want. And I want to be able to tell you that I love you every day."

I hear her gasp, and I'm afraid she's going to finally flip her lid and tell me she never wants to see me again.

"What?" I barley hear her breath out.

"Bella, what ma said earlier, is completely true. I was telling you when we were little that I loved you. I did back then. And I still do, to this day. It's just grown over the years. And seeing you again, having you here with my family again, just makes me see what we should have always been. Those kids in there should have been yours. We should have stayed, we should have dated, gotten married and had Izzy and Mason, together. But we can't change the past, and I wouldn't change my decision to keep Mason and Izzy. They've been my whole world for the past six years. But I can start to make things right. I want you with me. Always. But I'm willing to take things slow. I want you to do this in your own time. I'll wait. I don't care how long. I'll always wait for you." I pull her to me, and I don't want her to ever move from this spot.

And I really, _really_ do wish that Izzy and Mason were her biological children. Ever since she came back into my life, I've had visions of what could have been. How we would have grown up together, dated in high school, fallen in love, gotten married, had Mason and Izzy, and hopefully a few more children along the line. We would grow old together, raise our children, see our grandchildren and great grandchildren. I could see it all with her. I don't think I'd ever want that with anyone else.

"Edward, I'm… I'm not ready to say it back to you. But, I do want you to know that you are the most important person in the world to me, now. You and those kids. But you, in particular, are the one who makes me feel like I'm worth everything in the world. You make me feel alive, and cherished. I want all of those things, too, but it's going to take time. Just, please be patient with me. And I wish, more than anything that those kids were mine, biologically. I wish I was the mother that they needed." And I can hear the desperation in her voice. She really does want Mason and Izzy as her own.

"And you can be. Just by being there. Mason and Izzy adore you, and look up to you. Don't feel like you have to do or be anything, right now. Just do whatever you're comfortable with."

"Ok." I hear her agree.

"I hope you know I mean what I said. But I won't… smother you with it. As long as you know that I do, and you can say it, when and if you're ready, I'm ok." I'm hoping this keeps some of the pressure off of her. I'm gonna have to talk to the kids and let them know not to push her too much either, even after I told them earlier.

We eat the dinner I made and hang out for a little bit. And before I know it, Bella has to leave.

Watching the kids tell her goodbye is like a hit to the stomach. I see the look on Mason and Izzy's faces, and then the look on Bella's, and I know that at some point, they will be calling her 'momma'.

When they run back to their bedroom, I'm left with Bella. "I don't want to leave." She tells me, and I can hear in her tone that she'd probably rather walk on a bunch of rusty nails, then to leave and go back to Forks.

I give her a slight smile, hoping it doesn't look as horrible as I feel that she's going. "I don't want you to, either. But you said so yourself, that you need to get things settled and the sooner that gets done, the sooner you're back here, where you belong. I'll miss you like crazy." I tells her, wrapping my arms around her shoulders, while she wrap hers around my waist.

"Me too. I'll call you when I get there." I feel her leave a kiss over my heart, and I kiss the top of her head.

I can't help that I have to kiss her before she goes. So when I pull her face up to look at me, I look her in the eyes, and see the affection, adoration, and what I hope is love, there.

Seeing that, I lean down and leave a gentle kiss on her lips.

I watch her leave and go to the elevator to go down to her floor. I wait by the door so that I can see her for as long as I can.

I know I sound like a pussy, but I don't really care.

Seeing her get on the elevator and the doors closing, I wave to her, and feel my heart leaving with her.

* * *

So who wants to go give Edward a big cuddly hug? I sure do.

Next week, you'll all find out who was at the door in MGEMP. I think only one person got it right. Lol You'll all just have to wait and see.

Until next week,

Laters!


	7. Chapter 7

Hiiiiiii!

Ohmygod, can I just say… *singing* Have I told you lately, that I love youuuu? Lol seriously, I freaking love you guys, especially the ones of you that took to reading this side too. The reviews from the last chapter of MGEMP were so effing awesome! I know I didn't get a chance to respond to everyone, but you really, really make my day when I get reviews like that and I've said it before, it really does make me strive to write more and write better.

I love each and every one of you for your amazing support!

(and I will repeat the above next week at MGEMP, just FYI, because it's warranted. Hehe)

Anywho, so I know I said I was going to shorten this side of the story some, but this chapter is immune to that, because it ended up being 10 pages in my word doc. But there was enough stuff to fill this chapter with, so we're good.

So, lets see, what else… hmmmm, guess the rest will be at the bottom.

The usual, Lola is the beta, SM owns Twilight.

Read on, I'll see you at the bottom.

* * *

EPOV

After Bella left, the kids and I spent some time together, reading, playing a few games, and getting ready for bed.

Once they had both soaked me during bath time, I ran to clean myself up, and get some more towels for the Nile river that is now running through the kids' bathroom.

My phone starts ringing on my way back to the bathroom, so I grab it and answer it.

"Cullen." I answer, as I'm putting towels down to soak up the mess.

"Hey Eddie! You got a minute?" Ugh. Fucking Tanya.

Why can't she leave me alone? She keeps fucking calling me, like we're best friends, or boyfriend and girlfriend.

_Sorry, crazy lady, I've already got a woman that I love dearly._

"What can I do for you Tanya?" I ask, trying my damnedest to not sound like I want to reach through the phone and wring her neck.

"Oooh, I could think of a few things, but I wanted to see if you'd like to maybe come over to my place and have dinner, and maybe even a little dessert." I could hear the suggestive tone in her voice, and almost gagged.

_I'd rather scoop my eyes out with a rusty spork…_

"Tanya, my girlfriend just went home, and I've gotta get my kids into bed. So, no and no. And I do not appreciate this inappropriate behavior, Tanya. This is nothing concerning work, which you are suppose to be doing right now. If you keep this up, I will replace you. Do not push me." I tell her, then hang up and get back to cleaning up the mess in the bathroom.

"Daddy? Why were you angry on the phone?" Of course my daughter would come in and know that I was pissed at someone.

She's getting more and more perceptive lately. And it usually made her upset too when I was mad. And I hated that she took that into herself when she didn't need to.

"I'm sorry, baby girl. I was trying to deal with an employee that isn't really doing their job. It's ok now." I told her, hoping that would satisfy her question. I really don't want to get into the whole Tanya thing. I'm trying to keep Tanya as far away from my kids as possible.

Plus, adding this shit on top of the fact that Bella just left and I'm not gonna see her till later in the week, just sucks.

She looked at me for a moment, then seemed to think of something.

"Are you sad that Bella left to go back to Fork?" She asked in a small voice as she came and sat in my lap on the closed toilet.

Yep, should have made her middle name 'perceptive'. She usually knows exactly what's wrong.

"Yes, baby. I am. I wish she didn't have to go, but she'll be back in a few days." I pushed some of her wet hair behind her ear. "But, I think you and Mason can possibly talk to her on the phone between now and the time she comes back. So you'll at least have that time with her."

"Ok. Can me and Mase watch a movie before bed?" She asked in that sweet voice that she thinks always works.

"Well, I don't know. Are you two going to start screaming and jumping around when you're suppose to be winding down for bed while you watch it?" I loved giving them a hard time about stuff. They try so hard to argue their point that it's just cute.

"Dad-dy! Come on. We're don't _always_ do that. Pleeeaaassse?" She pleaded, clasping her hands together in front of her and jutting out her bottom lip.

Now the lip is the one that I'm most susceptible to.

"Alright. Who's room?" I asked, knowing they'll want to watch in one of their bedrooms since it's night time, and they're suppose to be going to bed.

And they'll just end up crashing before the movie's over anyways.

"Mine! Thant you, daddy!" She kissed my cheek and ran off out the door.

"Find a movie and I'll meet you in there!" I yelled after her while I finished up in the bathroom.

Once I got them set up with 'The Lion King', I left out of Izzy's room, knowing they'd be knocked out in probably thirty minutes. Their eyes were already getting heavy.

Cleaning up dinner, and getting myself wound down for the night was next on the agenda.

We didn't have any shipments coming in, the bar/club would be getting worked on during the week, the hotel remodel starts this week, I didn't have anybody I had to kill or get money out of… it's actually been a slow weekend for us.

But I knew it was a little too good to be true.

When I saw Bella's name flash on the screen of my phone, I hoped it was just her telling me she was home.

Fuck was I wrong.

"Hello?"

"_Edward_." I heard Bella's whimper through the phone, and I was on my feet and ready to charge out the door if something happened to her.

"Bella! Baby, what's wrong? Are you hurt? Did something happen? Talk to me, babe." I was fucking frantic, fearing that Black or her dad had hurt her.

"_My dad… he came and trashed my apartment and took my truck. I don't-don't know what to do…"_ the fucking scared sound in her voice almost broke my damn heart. She just sounded so helpless.

I was also fucking livid!

"HE DID WHAT?!" I screamed into the phone. Regretting it because I knew she'd probably think I was angry with her.

I ran towards my office, ready to look up numbers and info on whatever I had to, to get her out of there.

"_Edward, what am I suppose to do? I can't just pick up and leave-"_ I was stopping her right there, because I'd be damned if she was going to stay there if she didn't fucking have to.

"Yes the fuck you can. Bella, that man is unstable. Especially if he still has the key to your place. Shit, but you said you still had to train someone before you left. Shit, shit, shit. Ok, let me make a couple of calls, and I want you to get whatever you can salvage together, and put it in the car. Head over to the Inn, and you'll stay there for a few days. I'll come in a couple of days and have a little talk with Charlie. and then you'll come home. I'll talk to mom and speed up the work on your place. Make sure you can get in there maybe a day or two early. I don't want you to worry, B. We'll take care of it." I really just wish she could get in the damn Jag and turn around and come home. I don't feel comfortable leaving her there.

"_Ok. I can't even argue with you right now, about that. I'm not comfortable staying here." _Good. I'd really rather her be somewhere that he won't really know where she is so he can't catch her off guard, and wreck the rest of her stuff.

"Babe, talk to me. Do you want to come back tonight? Because if you do, just say the word." Please just change your mind and come home so my mind can be put at ease.

Hey, I can wish. But I know she's one that won't just drop her responsibility and run. That's why I admire her.

"_Edward, I can't just blow off my boss. I've gotta finish the week, and I'll be home Friday. I'll steer clear of my dad at all costs-" _She starts but is cut off by something I can't really hear clearly. But I know someone is there.

Fuck, what if it's Charlie coming back to actually harm her? Would he really do that? To his own daughter?

I wouldn't fucking put it past him. That guy is so god damn self-centered, its not even funny.

Then there's the other fear that one of the Black's caught on that Bella's part of the family and they could have followed her back to Forks.

That had me running for the front door.

"Bella, what's going on?" I ask, as I'm grabbing keys, guns, whatever else I need to get there to her as fast as possible and keep her safe.

"_Hold on, Edward…"_ She says in a low voice, and I hope she's not dumb enough to open the fucking door.

_And no I will not hold on._

"_Go away, Renee! I have nothing to say!"_ I hear her yell, so I guess that's who was at the door.

I stop and lean up against the wall in the vestibule near the elevator, and look up at the ceiling.

Thank god it's just Renee.

_And least I hope it's _just_ Renee, and Charlie's not with her._

"_Isabella, you open this damn door and talk to me! What in the world is going on with you?" _I can faintly hear Renee yell back, so she must not have opened the door.

"_You don't get it, do you Renee? This isn't yours or Charlie's decision. You're not going to change my mind. I'll talk to you when you're calm, but not when Charlie has been feeding you his version of what I said. Go home, and I'll talk to you this week. Charlie's already done enough damage here, as it is. I've got shit to clean up. So you can leave. And tell Charlie he can go fuck himself!" _ My girl yells back, and I couldn't be more proud. She handled that extremely well, considering what her dad has done.

"_This is insane, Isabella!"_ I could hear Renee yell back. The woman really didn't understand anything about the situation.

I didn't hear anymore from either of them on the other end, so I was assuming that Renee had finally left.

I was relieved that Renee didn't push Bella too far, and that Bella stood her ground. She's becoming stronger and not letting everyone walk all over her. She is handling the whole thing quite well, especially when she tells me she's coming home this weekend, regardless if she's on good terms with her mother or not.

And I heard it in her voice; she's not taking anyone's shit, anymore.

After I got off the phone with Bella, I made a call to her landlord.

"_Rolling Hills Apartments, how can I help you?"_ I heard the gruff man's voice answer.

"Hi, this is Edward Cullen, I'm family of one of the tenants in your building."

"_Oh, of course, Mr. Cullen. W-what can I do for you, sir_?" I could tell he knew who I was from how he was starting to stutter.

_How had Bella not known about our family if even this guy has heard about us from the news, or the local gossip?_

"Well, Bella Swan's apartment was trashed by her father, earlier this evening and she doesn't feel safe staying there anymore since he still has a key to the apartment. I'll pay for a new lock for the door, and whatever is left on her lease and anything else that needs to be paid, but she is not going to be staying there anymore. She's moving to Seattle this weekend. I would also like to ask that you not allow Charlie Swan back in the building, for the time being. I don't want him thinking he can come and go as he pleases. He's caused Bella enough trauma this evening. Do you think you'll be agreeable to that, Mr. Davis?"

"_Y-yes sir, Mr. Cullen. Not a problem. When will she be back for her things, and sign off on everything?"_ He asked, and I could hear him shuffling some papers around.

"We'll be there to get her stuff either Thursday of Friday. We'll take care of everything else then. Just make sure that man doesn't step foot in that building. I don't trust him after what he's done."

"_I'll make sure of it, Mr. Cullen. Don't worry. I'll have everything ready by then."_ I'm so glad he's agreeable to my requests. I guess being a Cullen even has pull in a town like this.

I wonder if it was like this when mom and dad moved us here before. It was like that in Chicago, somewhat, but we had always lived there. Except for that one year. They already knew about us, and the shock wore off for them. I guess a new city makes all the difference.

And I love it.

"Thank you Mr. Davis. I'll make sure you're compensated for your trouble. Have a good night." I ended the call and found the number for the Inn that Alice stayed at the other night.

"_Thank you for calling the Forks Inn. How can I help you this evening?" _The bubbly woman answered the phone.

At least some people in that town are a little chipper. Maybe too chipper for my taste.

"Yes, this is Mr. Cullen. I need to make a reservation for a few days."

I heard the phone drop and a muttered 'shit' from the other end.

"_Um, yes of course, Mr. Cullen. We'd be happy to help. When were you planning on staying?"_ Yep, another one bites the dust. The nervousness in her voice was a dead giveaway.

Hmmm, well I don't want Charlie Swan snooping, so it'd probably be best to not put it under Bella's name.

"My wife will actually be coming by tonight. So tonight until Friday would be great."

"_Sure, Mr. Cullen. I'll put that in right now. Please hold." _I heard her pull the phone away. But apparently not far enough away, because I heard her mutter, '_Can't get a god damn break with a guy. I totally would have gone for a mobster.'_

And I just had to laugh at that.

"_Ok, Mr. Cullen, you're all set for the rest of the week. I hope your… wife and you have a lovely stay with us."_

"Thank you very much." I ended that call and blew out a breath.

Some people, I swear, are just out of their minds. I would have liked to see what that woman would have done if she ever actually came across a mobster. I don't think she'd be singing the same tune.

Calling Bella back and letting her know that I've taken care of everything, I can hear the relief in her voice. And I think I may clear up my schedule so I can head over there Wednesday or Thursday.

The call I get from her later once she's gotten to the Inn, is a little heavier. I think everything just hit her then and she's having a hard time dealing with it. And I have to re-instill in her everything that she really is. She may be a bit of a pushover right now, but I know that it's all because her parents and other people around her make her feel like shit about herself. And she needs to be able to believe that she's worth something.

She's sure as hell worth everything to me.

But I did get a date with her from that call.

We finally got to talk about what her tattoo on her back was about, also. And I had a feeling that I was right in my thinking earlier; it was a symbol of her freedom. She wants to be free of her family, from fear, from people that don't respect her as a person. And the fact that she used the Beatles song to go with it seemed fitting for her.

And I got to sing to her, like I used to when we were younger. I knew it used to calm her when she was unable to sleep, so I hoped it would work again. It actually made me feel good that I could do that for her. Kind of like I was her cure-all, since she said I made her feel safe and confident, as well.

I couldn't believe she liked 'Across the Universe', too. I had always loved the Beatles' music, but that movie was just awesome with it.

Getting off the phone with her, I worried she might end up having an emotional breakdown, worse than earlier. She's had so much shit thrown her way this weekend, then to go back to Forks and have her own father be a total douche the way he was, might send her over the edge when it all hits her.

I just hope she knew she could call me if she needed support. Even Alice and Rose, once she gets to know her.

But I think she might call my mom if she needs a woman to talk to. She barely knows Alice, so it'll take some time to warm up to her.

During the week, though, she seemed to be doing ok. Maybe she's tougher than people give her credit for. And I'll be the first one to admit I'm in that group. But I really shouldn't be surprised. She was a tough girl when she was younger, and with everything that's gone on, she's had to grow a tough skin to deal with all of it.

Which makes me think she's gonna be just fine once she's talked to people and gotten more perspective.

Monday, I spent around the hotel, for most of the day. I met up with my mom at Bella's suite to make sure things were getting done right, and was surprised that my mom called in a twelve man crew for it.

But, this is my mom, we're talking about here. I'm more surprised that she didn't bring in a twenty man crew. Which I'm not going to mention, because she'll do it, too.

It did seem like they were getting a really good start on things, though. The walls were done by the end of the day, and they were well on their way to getting the lighting ready to go in. mom said that the furniture was on it's way and would be stored until the suite was totally finished.

Tuesday, I went to the bar and went over the details for opening in a few weeks.

Things looked like they were in order, but the few last minute things were what I would need to get to work on when Bella got back. I wanted her to have some input, too, on some of the things going on.

The basis of the bar, was that it wasn't just a bar, or a club. It was both.

When you first walk in, there are two ways you can go; to the left is a regular, 'hang-out' type of bar. Then, going to the right, you wind up in a dance club area, that has lights, another bar, and some booths. I like to give people the option of whether they want a chill place, or a upbeat place to go to. And I know so many people want to go to a quieter bar after they've been clubbing, so I thought it would kill two birds with one stone.

One thing I want to do is have t-shirts made for all the staff, for one reason, they could be spotted more easily when they're moving between the bar and the club. And it would bring in more people if the shirts were fun and different each night; people would want to see what the people at 'Breaking Twilight' were wearing tonight, and go there.

Check and check.

But we're comfortably on schedule.

What I haven't told Bella yet… is that I _am_ kind of opening a strip club here, too.

Seattle is almost as bad about people wanting strip clubs as Chicago, so there's a no brainer.

But I'm going to wait on that one for a bit. I want to get these two businesses done and ready, then I'll start on the other.

It's hard enough opening up two new places, while helping run a mafia.

Tuesday night, though, found me working at the docks.

That's the only bad thing about the mafia; I don't always get to spend my nights with my kids. But they understand that I have to work, even thought they don't know what I do.

And they don't mind getting to spend the night with aunt Ali and Namie.

Wednesday, I was trying to get everything taken care of so that I could go ahead and drive to Forks tonight, instead of tomorrow.

Alice did tell me that she talked to Bella a couple of times this week, and could tell that Bella would be just fine in time.

She also swears that they're gonna be best friends. But I'm not saying anything, because maybe that's what Bella needs. A best friend, or friends, that she can lean on and talk to whenever she wants. Not just people she knows, people she can trust and have a bond with. It'll help boost her confidence. She hasn't had that kind of support in her life, and it's about damn time she did.

When I dropped the kids off at my parents' house, mom was almost vibrating with excitement.

"Ma, I'm just going to Forks. It's not like we're getting married." _Yet,_ I thought to myself.

What? I can think ahead to the future.

"I know, I know. Just bring her home and away from that crazy father of hers. I don't want that man anywhere near her." My mother said, shooing me back out the door.

Making my way to Forks, I drive around the small town, making sure I'm familiar with the area so that I don't have to guess where to go, or the fastest route out of town.

You know, in case I blow a gasket and shoot Charlie Swan… I might have to make a fast getaway.

* * *

Hehehe, yeah, not making any promises.

So I know I didn't put anything in here about Skankica(thanks to fullofpassion09, I'm so using that one) but I figured it'd be best to wait til the next chapter to get all that funness in there.

Oh you guys are gonna loooovvve the next chapt of MGEMP! *claps hands* I'm so giddy about that one. Hehehehehehehe

Alright, now that I got that excitement out of the way, I'm gonna see how things go with slimming these chapters in this story down a bit. But they shouldn't be too bad. I just wasn't feeling the repetitiveness that I was putting in. but I do want to put in what and how he was feeling during those times, and what else is going on.

There may be some weeks that I won't post for this story if there's nothing that needs to be said from EPOV, but again, we'll see how that goes. I can't wait to get to the major stuff in this story!

Ok, I'll see you all next week at MGEMP

Laters!


	8. Chapter 8

Hi guys!

Ok, so this is gonna be a short chapter, but at least it's a little something for ya to hold you over until next week…. Hopefully next week.

Sorry, my writing schedule has just been totally thrown off, and I'm trying to get it done when I've got a free minute, but I don't have a lot of those lately. But I'm working on it.

This chapter is not beta'd. didn't have time if I was gonna post on Friday. Sooooo, sorry if there's any mess ups. I tried to go back over and make sure I had everything right.

But y'all know that usually, it's Lola that betas. (sorry chicky. Couldn't get it finished last night.:))

And twilight belongs to SM. Duh.

Read on my peeps!

* * *

EPOV

Bella told me on the phone that she had to work tonight, so I head straight to Cedar Creek Tavern.

The bar looks like your normal, run of the mill, bar. Neon lights, beer signs, bar stools, high tables, a few booths.

I can feel her whenever I walk in. I don't see her right away, but I know she's there.

I look towards the bar and see a brunette behind it serving beers and flirting with everyone.

_Must be Jessica._

Bella had talked about her and her less-than-subtle ways around the bar… or a man's penis.

I had to laugh when she told me that. This woman had to be a fucking piece of work.

I make my way to the bar and grab a stool, and notice the brunette eyeing me like I'm something to eat.

It's a little unsettling, coming from her.

"Heya, handsome. What can I get for you?" Ugh, her fucking voice is even annoying. And _trying_ to sound seductive.

It's not fucking working. At all.

"I'm waiting for Bella, but I'll take a Corona while I wait." I told her, hoping she'd get the beer and leave me be.

She reached into the cooler below the bar and grabbed a bottle and handed it to me.

"Oh trust me, you're wasting your time on her. You could do so much better than the little ice queen. Now I, on the other hand, can be_ very_ accommodating." Jesus, this chick really is a slut.

I thought Bella was exaggerating. But this girl is thrusting her boobs at me across the bar, licking her lips, and eye fucking me.

You would think she was a sex addict if she did this with every guy. And from what Bella told me, she does.

"Sorry, not interested." I told her, trying not to sound like an ass, but she needed to leave it alone.

I can't say that I'm not used to women throwing themselves at me, and on the odd occasion, yes I would cave and indulge, but it's very few and far between. Mostly because I've got my kids to think about, and I have to remember how they were brought into this world.

They were, essentially born to be Irina's pawns to get money out of me. And I will not allow another child of mine to be brought into this world for that reason, ever.

And I know Bella would never do that to me.

In fact, I'd be more than happy to bring a baby into the world with her. Several babies, even.

Just as I finish that thought, I see her walking towards us behind the bar and I smile widely at her. I can't believe it's only been a few days, but I've missed her terribly.

"Oh I think you'd change your mind. You really should come back to my place so we can have some fun…" She trails off, again trying to sound seductive, when all she's accomplishing is to irritate the ever loving shit out of me.

Then Bella surprises the hell out of me. "Jess, if Edward wants to go and get a disease, I'm sure he'd rather brush his teeth with Typhoid Mary's straight razor." I don't know whether to laugh or just gape at her. Because, really, I wouldn't have thought her to come back like that at someone. But she did, and she turned to me and whispered, "You're here."

Leaning my forehead to hers, I tell her how much I missed her and get lost in just feeling her here in front of me. I'm trying not to push her by going in and kissing her, so for now, I'll take this and just be happy to show some sort of affection towards her.

Then, Skankica decided to disrupt our moment. "Gah, way to cock-block, Isabella." She sneered, and I almost jumped across the bar to smack her.

But Bella shocked me again and stuck up for herself. "Jessica, the next time you try to get with someone else's boyfriend, they might not restrain themselves from punching you in your skanky mouth like I am."

The look she was shooting at Jessica was lethal.

I seriously don't want to get on her bad side. Ever. She could really scare the shit out of me if she hit me with that look.

Jessica just didn't want to give up. She seemed to be one of those people that HAD to have the last word, no matter what. And it HAD to be her way. "Puh-leaze! Like this guy would ever go for some prude like you? He needs a real woman that can satisfy him. Not someone that will run away at the sight of his beautiful cock."

I saw Bella's slight panic, and knew I had to put a stop to Jessica's bullshit. "Yeah, well she's the only one that's ever going to see it, as far as I'm concerned. So take that disease ridden pussy somewhere else. I sure as fuck don't have any use for it."

The look on Jessica's face is priceless. She seems to think we've lost our minds. And Bella's just laughing. I'm not far behind with my own chuckle, but I try my hardest to refrain, for the moment.

But I am beyond proud of her for how she's standing up for herself. She's not shrinking away, she's not letting Jessica walk all over her. She's got comebacks, and she's putting her in her place.

When Jessica finally tucks her tail between her legs and scurries off, I try to find out if Bella's off soon. I'm about to starve because I haven't eaten since this morning and I wanted to get here so I rushed through all of my business shit earlier. But now, it's late, and I'm fucking hungry.

While Bella's gone to talk to Mike, I scan the bar area, just out of habit.

But when I do, I see Seth Clearwater walking by the set of windows on the front of the building. He's still got a bit of a limp going on, and bruises on his face, but he's lucky I didn't call over to the other warehouse myself and tell them to kill him.

It was Jasper who made the call though. I trusted his judgment.

But right now, I'm worried that Black and his other guys are gonna get word quicker that Bella's with me, and he's gonna try something.

That's one thing I've struggled with the most about having Bella involved with me and the family's business. I'm so afraid someone's gonna target her, or use her to get to me. I worried about the same thing with my kids.

I need to tell her about this shit, too. I'm just not sure when the best time would be. She needs to know, and be prepared, but I want to shield her as much as I can from all of this shit.

I can also see Jessica eye me for a minute before she stalks off.

That can't be good.

And I find out that it wasn't when Bella comes back from the back hallway with a bruise starting to form on her jaw.

_I will fucking kill the motherfucker that touched my girl!_

But, Bella tells me that she broke Jessica's nose, and she's flat on her ass in the back hallway.

_I think I just fell in love with her even more._

I had to kiss her. No way around it.

She's fucking shocking me left and right with how she's standing up for herself. It's such a turn around from this past weekend and everything she's told me about herself.

When we're in the diner, and we just start talking about everything, she told me what she was feeling. And I could've jumped up and down like a damn little girl. I know she loves me, because I can see it. She's not to the point that she can tell me yet, but she is working up to it. And that's all I can ask.

But it's when we head out to our cars after we leave the diner that I see her pull back on that confidence she's had all night, a little. And it's when she sees Seth, coming from what I can only guess is one of Black's deals or meetings.

I really don't want Bella here anymore. Especially if they're dealing in town, as opposed to La Push or Seattle.

When he got in my face, my priority was to protect Bella. And I could feel her flinch when he got closer.

I knew it was just a matter of time before we came across one of those idiots, but I was hoping that I could have told Bella about them first.

But I guess there's no time like the present.

And I know she's gonna freak out this time.

* * *

I know, not much different from the chapter from MGEMP, but I wanted to give you something without skipping a week.

Anyways, I'll try to have the next one of MGEMP out next Friday, no promises though.

Keep the reviews coming! I love hearing them


	9. Chapter 9

Hello again, all my lovely people!

I know, it's been a while for this side of the story, but it hasn't been… really needed yet. I mean like right now, there's a good spot to see what Edward's thinking. It's not much this time, but its at least a little something. But stay with me, because in a few chapters, we're gonna be having some issues, and, well, let's just say Edward's POV will be important. So you guys will probably be the only ones that know what's going on. Lol

Anywho, oh, I love y'alls responses to the other story. Everybody is rooting for her. And it pains me to do what I'm gonna do in this story, but it's just how my brain works. Sorry guys!

So, let's see…. Lola is the beta that keeps me sane. Muahs.

And SM owns twi, not me. *sad face*

Oky doky, read on!

* * *

EPOV

I swear I could have killed Charlie Swan for the way he talked to Bella. He had no fucking right to say that shit about her.

And what father thinks that their daughter is a hooker just because she brought a guy home with her?

I was so close to going for my gun, but I refrained. Bella didn't need to see that, and neither did Renee.

It took the entire drive back to Seattle for me to cool down.

But my mood lightened when we walked into my parent's house.

Seeing Em and Rose was a little surprising. Mom had called them and asked them if they could make it out to Seattle for the weekend for Bella's birthday. Em said he wasn't sure, but they were going to try to make it. I figured if they would be here Friday, I guess I wasn't the only one that was surprised.

Mom was dead set on throwing Bella a birthday party, since we'd been gone for so long and missed so many of her birthdays… at least that's her reasoning.

She really just wants a reason to celebrate.

While the girls went upstairs, minus Izzy, we went back to the game that they had started.

"Daddy, is Bella back for good, this time?" Mason asked me a few minutes into the game.

I looked over at him and smiled. "Of course she is. She was so excited to come home and see you guys." I ruffled his hair, and then he scowled at me for doing it.

"I'm glad she's home. I missed her." Izzy said while Mason smoothed out his hair, unsuccessfully.

The kid's hair was worse than mine sometimes.

"Me too, baby girl. Me too." I smiled over at her.

"Well I'm happy to finally meet her. I remember you guys talking about her all the time when we were little. She had to have been pretty special for you to be so caught up in her. And I see she still must be now." Emmett smirked at me and wiggled his eyebrow.

"Don't even go down that road. She's not ready for that. But yes, she is very special to me. I love her, and she's it for me."

There. They had it cut and dry for them.

"PAY UP UNCLE JAZZ!" Mason yelled as Jasper landed on one of his spaces.

"Dang it…" Jazz muttered while handing over the money to a triumphant Mason.

Emmett held up his hands in surrender. "Fine. Hey, she's a cute girl, really sweet. I just want what's best for you, dude. And if she's it, then I won't say a word. But after what you told me about her, I don't want to see her hurt. I may not have known her as long as you guys, but she feels like family, and no one deserves to go through something like that. Especially after Rosie."

"I know, man. Believe me. That's the last thing I ever want to do." I told him, and we continued on with our game.

The girls finally came back down, and it seemed Bella had caved to the monsters, known as Ma, Alice and Rose.

But this might be fun for her. She needs something to celebrate after everything she's been through.

When we made our way outside after dinner, Rose whispered to me, "Keep the kids busy for a little while. I'm gonna talk to Bella." She looked up at me and I saw that look in her eyes. The one she got when she was reliving what happened to her in her head. She knew she was going to have to go through that again in telling Bella.

"I'll do my best. We're here if you need us. Just yell." I hugged her and went off with the kids.

Mason and Izzy couldn't love their playhouse anymore that they already did. I wouldn't put it past them to want to live there, permanently.

Maybe I'll let them have a 'camp out' night and they can stay out here. There's enough security with the gate and it being off the road, and guards everywhere.

Em, Jasper and I were up on the deck of the playhouse while Izzy and Mason were 'cooking' something for us inside the playhouse. Mom had even put a play kitchen in there.

The three of us turned when we heard a strangled sob coming from the deck of the house, and saw Bella holding Rose to her for dear life. I could see from here that they were both struggling to keep it together and I'm guessing she just told her what the guys that attacked her did to her.

It makes me sick every time I think about it. She didn't deserve that. No one does. Just because she's beautiful, and a woman, doesn't mean that a man can take what he wants from her. Especially with the force that they had.

She had been such a wreck when she came home after almost a week of being missing. She couldn't stand for anyone to be around her. She was reluctant to let Emmett near her, but he was her lifeline, her comfort, and she needed him.

Rose's parents weren't around anymore. They had died in a car accident when she was sixteen, and the state let her choose where she wanted to go; with us or a foster family until she aged out.

She chose to stay with us. We were the closest thing she had to family, so we were more than happy to have her stay with us. And she was far from a burden. She had me and Jasper to pester, and she had Alice to hang out with. And then Alice moved in with us, not long after. Emmett was just glad she was close by, instead of god knows where across Chicago.

So she only let Em around for a long time. Ma was finally able to be near her after a couple of weeks. Then Alice. But that was the extent of it for a few months.

She went through therapy, twice a week, for years. Sometimes it was more. But she was finally able to go out on her own, be around men and other people. But you could definitely still see the reservations she had in her eyes. She was still wary. But she had good reason.

I think she still is, but she handles it so well now.

I could see Em bunching his hands into fists as he listened to Rose crying.

"Easy, man. She knew what she was doing. She knew she might break down. She has to be able to do this on her own, sometimes. You know she talks to other rape victims, too. It may not be that often, but it doesn't change how hard it is for her." I put a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"I know. I just fucking hate that she has to live through it over and over again. I know she does in her head, because she'll still wake up in the middle of the night freaking out and screaming. There's not a day that goes by that she's not reminded of what happened to her. And she has to live with it everyday because she can't have children now. Those bastards did take that part away from her. But we're still trying to prove the doctors wrong. So far, no luck. But we're not gonna give up easily."

"That's all that matters; that you guys don't give up. Did you ever get those bastards taken care of?" I asked, wondering because he had said he wouldn't let them get away with what they did.

"Oh they're both getting taken care of. Every day. I think they're the prison bitches, from what I heard. But I guess it could be getting the time to take them out of the equation, permanently. I don't want them even getting close to getting parole for 'good behavior'. I paid them a visit when they were sent away, and let them know they were in for a long, looonng future of taking it up the ass. But that they would never see freedom again." Emmett said with a twinkle in his eye.

Yeah, he wasn't one to mince words when it came to vengeance and revenge. And this is one of the things I would never fault him for it.

"Have you guys been using anything to help along the process for a baby?" Jasper asked, trying to keep it down while the kids were so close.

"Yeah, we went to a fertility specialist. She gave Rosie a couple of options to try, and we went with the injections. She hates having to take the shots, but she's determined. So am I. I even asked if there was anything I could be doing differently. She said that I could try one thing, but the side effects were a bigger problem than going solo. So, I opted not to do it. They said my dudes were fine, so I'd rather not add any hindrances to fun time." He winked, and I playfully punched his shoulder.

He knows I'm not getting any, but now that Bella's back in my life, I'm ok with that.

Oh believe me; I'm suffering from a massive case of blue balls on a daily basis because of how badly I want her. But I'm not going to pressure her.

I'll wait. For my brown eyed beauty, I'd wait for an eternity.

* * *

Isn't he just the sweetest?

I love getting in his head sometimes.

Ok, so I'm not sure if I'll have another chapter up here in 2 weeks, after I post on MGEMP next week. Like I've said, I gotta see where things go and if it's needed. I'm trying to get everything rolling in MGEMP.

Alrighty, I'll see you guys soon!

Laters!


	10. Chapter 10

Hey guys! Sorry, I know it's Saturday, but at least I'm posting. I've had a really bad 'life to story' week this week. I've had 2 days this week where I was just in no way mentally able to write. But I made myself sit down yesterday and get the rest of this one written so I could get it to Lola and post today.

Thanks for all the supporting and encouraging words last week. You guys really helped me feel better about doing this story.

And those of you that responded to the "Mason and Izzy Chronicles' idea, well, we're going to be seeing that this week in this chapter. It'll be at the end.

There's a little violence and vulgarity towards the end, so heads up on that.

I'm still a little iffy on this chapter. I don't know if it's just my brain's not all there with what I've been dealing with this week, or I'm just paranoid, but I hope y'all like it.

And as usual, Lola (LaurieWhitlock) is my beta that has lost her gd mind since she's agreed to do the NaNoWriMo. You're insane, honey! Lol

And SM owns Twilight. None of us do.

Read on my dears!

* * *

EPOV

I almost fought Bella on her taking the kids up to give them a bath and get them ready for bed, but she insisted. Her telling me that it would be good to bond with them is what sold me.

I mean, the kids already love her, but getting to know her and spend time with her will help.

I walk Emmett and Rose to their 'apartment' that is below Bella's floor and show them around.

It's still in its original state, but work will start on it soon.

"Wow, Ed. This place is awesome. I can't wait to see it when it's finished." Emmett said as he walked around the place, taking it all in.

"Well, let me know if there's anything specific that you guys want, or don't want. I want you to feel like this is your home too. It's here whenever you want it."

Rose came over and hugged me. "Thanks. We appreciate this. I think it's a good idea to have the majority of us in one area. Carlisle and Esme have a place too, don't they?"

"Yeah, they're below you guys. Bella is on the next floor up, Jasper and Ali are above her, and I'm on the top floor with the kids." I looked over and saw Emmett rooting around in the fridge, hoping to find something to eat. Good thing Ma went and got a few things for them.

"You really like her, don't you?" Rose said in a low voice.

I knew exactly who she was talking about. "I've loved her since we were kids. I've missed her so damn much, but I never knew if we'd ever get to come back here. I was resigned to… live my life without her. I was gonna raise Izzy and Mason on my own. I don't know if I would have ever found someone to…be a mother to them. But I want, more than anything, for Bella to be that. She's great with them, and they love her to death. They even asked if they could call her 'mommy'. Do you realize how huge that is for them?"

"Really? Already? I woulda never thought they would call _anyone _that. They knew that their 'biological' mother didn't want to be a part of their lives. I don't think I've ever even seen them look to other women to be considered 'mom material'. I never have, anyways." Rose said, still trying to figure out what Em is doing.

"I haven't, either. I haven't really let anyone else get close to them, or me, even. After Irina, I was extremely wary of anyone coming into my life and being around my children. I guess I've just been paranoid… Em, what the fuck are you doing, dude?" I finally had to find out. He's been buried in the damn refrigerator for almost ten minutes.

He turned around from his spot where he was, apparently, stuffing his face. "What? I'm hungry. And aunt Es brought all my favs." He held up the container of dip that Ma had made and brought over with the groceries. And I now saw the bag of chips, which I had no clue when he found those.

"Babe, you're wasting electricity. Shut the damn door and go sit on the couch with that stuff. And save some for me, too. You know I love that dip." Rose told him, and grabbed a chip and dipped it as he walked by. "Mmm, fucking delicious. I wish she'd tell me how to do this. She always has it made by the time we get to their house, and I can never see what she puts in it."

I smirked, because I knew exactly what was in it. But I wasn't going to tell Rose or Emmett, because it would take away one of Ma's 'nurturing moments'. That's what she calls it. I call it, stuffing Em's face with his favorite foods.

Rose saw the smirk on my face, and pointed a finger at me. "You… better hope that I never find out if you know how to make it. Because if I do, I'm coming after you, Little Cullen." She threatened, and then smacked my cheek as she passed.

"You know, Ro, violence is never the answer." I teased her as I followed her into the living room.

"Says the man who is second in command of one of the biggest mafia families in the country." She teased back.

"I thought I was second in command, now." Emmett piped up.

"No, you douche; you're second in command in Chicago, but not of the family. Get your shit straight." I punched his shoulder.

"Hey, who needs the lesson on violence, now? Hmm?" Ahh Rose was just like the sister we never had.

You had to love her.

"Whatever. I'll see you guys later. Enjoy the apartment." I said as I made my way to the door.

"We will!" They both chorused, and I had to laugh. Those two were perfect for each other.

When I got back up to my floor, I could hear music from the doorway. Walking further into the living room, I notice that Bella is dancing around with the kids to a Katy Perry song.

Izzy is a Katy Perry nut.

Almost as much as she is with Taylor Swift.

Bella finally noticed me in the room, and her cheeks tinged pink.

It was beautiful on her.

I went and scooped Iz up in my arms and danced with my baby girl. She loved her daddy/daughter dancing time.

I just wish she'd stay this way forever. I don't want her to grow up.

I want them to be kids, and enjoy life. I want them to have a mother that they can go to when I'm not home. Someone Izzy can go to when she…hits that stage and she needs feminine products and stuff like that. Someone that she can go to when she wants to talk about boys.

Someone Mason can learn to be a gentleman from, not just from my mom and Rose and Alice.

I looked over to where Bella and Mason were dancing together, and knew that this was right. This is what my life was supposed to be. Bella was always supposed to be with me, be a mother to my kids. Even if she's not their biological mother.

"I love you daddy." I heard Izzy whisper in my ear, and had to fight back the tears.

Yeah, it was gonna suck watching her get older and not have these moments with my baby, anymore.

"I love you too, princess."

We put the kids down for bedtime, and I talked and read to Izzy. It didn't take her long to fall asleep, so I crept out of her room, and made my way to the living room again.

When I get to the archway, I see Bella slightly swaying to the music.

I know the song and actually kind of like it. The lyrics to it, if I remember them right, are very akin to how I've felt over the last years since we've been gone.

"Dance with me, Beautiful." I whispered as I wrapped my arms around her waist.

She turned in my arms and we continue to sway to the music. I close my eyes as I take her hand in one of mine, and wrap the other around her.

This is all I ever wanted to do when I was in Chicago. Her in my arms, feeling her this close, being able to smell her beautiful, sweet scent.

I'm kicking myself for staying away for so long.

I can feel her slightly shaking, and tears soaking into my shirt. And I have to admit, my eyes aren't exactly dry, either.

She's all I ever wanted. And I'll never want anyone else, other than her.

She really is my other half, and I just hope she sees it sooner, rather than later.

When she reaches up and cups my face, and looks into my eyes, I can see that she's starting to get it. And I see love. More than anything, I see love in her eyes.

"I love you. I love you so much, Edward. I can't lose you again." Her voices quakes a little with emotion and her tears.

I can't stop myself when I crash my lips to hers. I have to kiss her. I have to show her how much I love her, without going all cavemen on her and taking her to bed.

But that'll come with time…

I kiss her with everything I have in me, and wrap my arms tightly around her waist, and lift her slightly from the floor, so she's level with me.

"God, baby you don't know how long I've waited to hear that. I fucking love you, so much it hurts." I say against her lips, and then attach myself to her again, with fervor.

I don't know how long we kiss for. It could have been hours or days. I'm gonna be addicted to her kisses from now on.

When I tell her how happy I am, I don't think she could ever really know the extent of my love for her. She's become the very air that flows in and out of my body, the blood that runs in my veins. It sounds cheesy as hell, but she really does complete my very being.

But then she tells me the feelings are taking over every corner of her body, and that's about how I feel, too. So maybe she does know…

We move to sit on the couch and snuggle up together.

I never thought I'd be one to snuggle, but damn it, that's all I wanna do with her right now.

I might just have to turn over my gun and my man card, because there's no way a mobster could feel like this for their woman.

But… dad does. He loves my Ma more than life itself. He'd die for that woman. Jasper's the same with Alice. I'm his twin, and we just know things about each other, without really talking. The second she showed up on our doorstep with a broken arm after her father threw her down the stairs, I saw it. He would kill for her. That level of love, where you put them above yourself, is fucking heavy, but life altering. In a good way.

"I don't want you to go back to your place." I know I was pouting, but fuck, I wanted her with me. I'd gotten used to her sleeping next to me when she's here, or when I went to Forks. I'm getting spoiled by her presence.

And she's right, I know where she'll be, and she's not gonna be that far away, but it's still not the same as having here, in my arms.

I may have gotten a tiny bit ahead of myself with that semi-proposal. I'm surprised she didn't rip my balls off for that. But I at least want her to know where I stand.

And when I do propose to her, it's not going to be in a restaurant or on the beach at sunset, or in front of millions of people. Bella doesn't like that kind of stuff. She's shy, and doesn't like lots of people looking at her. And she doesn't want the cliché.

My phone rings a little while later, and I am so pissed that I have to take it.

"Cullen." I answer, a little more forceful than I wanted to, but they were interrupting my time with my girl.

"Boss, we've got a problem." I heard the voice of Randall, one of my guys at the docks.

"Yeah."

"We've had someone sniffing around at six and seven by the water." Damn it, fuckers are messing with my warehouses again.

"You guys can't handle this on your own?" I ask, hoping that they can do this without having to be babysat.

"Uhh, sir, one of the 'big dogs' was doing the sniffing. And what looked like some street thugs. They didn't look like his guys, but you never know. They're still around, so I called you to see what you wanted us to do. Do we follow them, shoot them, stop them, or do you want to be here for the job?"

I sighed. "Fine, we'll be there in a little while."

I hung up and turned to see Bella's face, which was a little sad.

"I've gotta go… Umm, can you maybe help me get the kids out to the car? I'm just gonna take them over to my parents so you can go back to your apartment for the night."

"Edward, you don't have to do all of that. I can stay here with them."

"No, B, I don't want you to have to worry about them every night that you live here…" she stopped me.

"Edward, really, it's not a problem. I told you I'd stay with them if you ever had to go to work. I don't have any other obligations right now and I have no where that I need to be. I'm fine with it. Go do whatever you have to do." She looked down as her face morphed into worry and fear. I wasn't having that.

"Hey, what's this?" I motioned to her face as I lifted her chin for me to see her. Seeing that little bit of fear in her eyes wasn't really helping the fact that I had to leave.

"…Is it always gonna be like this? Whenever you leave in the middle of the night to go to work, am I going to feel scared all the time that you're not gonna come back?"

Damn. Yeah, she was worried. I don't know how to sugar coat this for her, since there really isn't a way to.

But explaining how my parents are and Alice and Jasper, and Rose and Em, seems to relax her shoulders, slightly. She'll always be worried about me. But I'll always do whatever it takes to come back to her every night.

Thank god the girls came up to stay with her though. That will help her keep her mind off of things and help her relax.

After we say our goodbyes, and I almost lost a finger when Bella pulled me back for another kiss, we made our way to the garage and into the suburban.

"How does it feel to be back with the team, Em?" Jazz chuckled as we all buckled in.

"Fucking awesome! I can't wait to move out here and work with you guys, permanently. I mean, I like the guys I work with in Chicago, but we've always been a team, and we've always known how the other thinks. We don't have that closeness between me and the other guys. I trust them, but I trust you guys with my life."

"Aww, Em… you do have a soft spot." I faked wiping a tear from my eye before he shoved me in the shoulder. "Hey, I'd rather you were here, too. You always lighten the mood when shit gets too heavy, and you're the muscle. We need you around here, sometimes." I smiled back at him from the front seat.

"Fuck you, dude. I'm not your ox." He bickered.

"Nah, but your stubborn like one, sometimes…" Jazz muttered, and then took a hit in the arm, too. "Fuck, man, no hitting the driver."

"Bite me." Em pouted a little, and then smiled. He was so much fun to have around.

Once we got to the warehouses, we saw a few of our guys wandering around, trying to go unnoticed.

We pulled in behind one of our warehouses that weren't so visible to the passerby. It was raining a little, but it kept going in and out. You could hear thunder off in the distance, as well. Typical Seattle weather. You never knew when it was going to rain.

Once we got out, I saw Stefan and Alistair walking our way.

They were two of the guys that I trusted the most, aside from Em, Jazz, Uncle Ty, Uncle El, and Eric.

Stefan was a descent looking guy. In his early thirties, tan skin, brown hair, brown eyes, well built.

Alistair was a little older. He was in his late thirties, dark blonde hair, brown eyes, kind of beefy like Em.

I had known that I wanted them to watch out for Bella, be her bodyguards. I just didn't want her to know about it, quite yet.

"Hey, Stef, Alistair." I shook their hands as they got close enough. We were on a side of the building that was somewhat protected from the rain. "I've got a job for the two of you after we finish up here. Its high priority and I don't need idiots on this job. I'm counting on the two of you for this one."

"Uhh, what kind of job, boss?" Stefan asked as we walked along the side of the warehouse.

"Protection detail. I need you to protect someone as if it were me. Hell, you guys _have_ been pretty much protecting me. So this shouldn't be too much of a change for you."

"The kids?" Stefan asked.

"No, the kids already have a detail. I'm guessing it's the girl you've been seen with, boss." Alistair was always on top of shit.

"Yes. Bella. She's… let's put it this way, she'll eventually be Mrs. Cullen, so I don't want any pussy-footing going on. I want one of you with her at all times and outside her apartment door at night."

"Oh shit. You weren't kidding with that, were you? Alright, I'm in. She's not a trouble maker, is she?" Stefan asked, and I guess that was logical.

"No, she's pretty straight forward. She doesn't party, she doesn't drink much, she doesn't like big crowds, and she's a home body, mostly. She'll be working at the bar once it's open. She has some issues with men, so I want you to handle this with kid gloves, for the time being. If she freaks out, call me, and I'll calm her down. Black violated her, and she's always looking over her shoulder. She'll be doing that now, regardless, but now that she knows who he is, she's a little more worried. Do you both understand?"

They both nodded, and I knew I could trust them to watch out for her when I wasn't around her.

"Thank you. Ok, let's see what Randall has." We walked into the warehouse and saw Randall at his watch point.

"Hey man. So what are they doing?" I asked him as we came to stand beside him.

"I've seen Jacob and Billy snooping around six and seven. They went into one, but they came out empty handed. They haven't touched the other one yet, but they may be waiting to see if anyone shows up. Or they could have another guy that's being stealthier looking at the other building."

God damn it. He's getting way too close.

"Get someone in the other building, and make sure nothing's being messed with. Tell them to watch for anything that shouldn't be there. Not just what should be there." I told them, and they went off to do their thing.

The rain had stopped for a little while, so maybe we wouldn't be completely soaked by the time we were out of here.

We all made sure we had our ear pieces in again, and checked that we could hear everyone, and waited.

After about five minutes, we heard a commotion in our ears.

'Shit, they're trashing it! THEY'RE TRASHING IT, BOSS!" I heard Randall yell, and then everyone started moving.

'Apollo, Blackhawk, Tank, fall back. We've got other eyes on the building. Let's get our own look at 'em." My dad said through the earpiece.

Emmett, Jasper and I fell back to join dad around the corner at the other building.

"One building back, top of the stairs. Tell me who you see." Dad said as we made it to where he was standing.

I looked first, and felt my blood boil.

_Fucking Jacob Black._

I started to move, although I hadn't realized I was until Jasper put a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't do it. Not yet. We need to have the upper hand when we get him. We don't know what they're doing right now, other than trashing our warehouse. They could be watching our response to this shit. We need to think logic before we kill that fucker. I want him dead just as much as you do. He hurt my sister. He's not gonna get away with it." Jasper told me, looking me in the eye.

I could see his own anger surging in his eyes, so I knew I wasn't alone. And he knew what I was thinking. That I want to torture and make Jacob suffer in the most horrible ways imaginable.

But he's right, we'll get there. We do need to think straight and have the upper hand when we catch his ass.

I'll look forward to that day…

We heard the guys over the earpiece say that it was cleared out now and that they were doing recon on what was trashed.

It looked like they had gotten into the supplies for the club. Each of the buildings is different, and they had picked one that housed the stuff we were using to finish up building, remodeling, decorating and setting up the club. There's another warehouse that has the workings for the hotel remodel, as well.

But we do use these warehouses for 'midway stops' for guns and stuff. We'll get the guns in, store them here for a short time, and then move them to a separate location. Or the house. Ma told dad that he couldn't store all of the guns and ammo there, but she would tolerate a small amount of them.

"Well, well, looks like someone's having a rough night." I heard that damn voice, and wanted to shove my gun down his throat.

"Black." I gritted out. "Nice of you to supervise your minions."

This guy was such a tool. I couldn't stand him. His build was smaller than Emmett's, but not much bigger than me or Jasper. We'd give him a run for his money. Probably win too.

He was tan, short black hair, too tight shirt. You'd think he was gay with how tight his shirt was.

Either that or he was trying to be the hulk, and failing.

He just raised an eyebrow at me, and then changed topics. "So, heard you got yourself a little whore, now, Cullen. Didn't know you had it in you." That's fucking IT!

I went to charge the bastard but Em was in front of me, and dad had swung his arm back and made contact with Jacob's throat.

Black was a little caught off guard and had to lean over to not just fall straight to the ground.

"You ever talk about my daughter like that again, and I'll kill you with my bare hands." My father said, in an all too calm, eerie voice.

It took Jacob a few minutes to get his bearings, but then he stood back up.

"Your son's fucking your daughter? And you're ok with that?" He laughed, and I went for him again, only to be stopped by Em, again.

Dad raised his eyes heavenward, then back down to Jacob.

"Jacob, I will only say this once. Isabella is my daughter. She may not be my blood, but she is family. And will be legally and in the eyes of god, one day. This means, if you ever come near her, you should already have your grave dug up. Because that is the fastest way to end up there. She is protected. By guards, and our laws. If you are stupid enough to go against those laws, then I pray that I'm there to witness your punishment. You leave Isabella be. You've already violated her once, I'll be damned if it happens again on my watch."

"Jake, what the hell's he talking about?" Billy Black asked from behind his son.

Jacob apparently hadn't told daddy dearest what he'd done to Bella. Huh…

"Your shit-for-brains son tried to rape my girl when she was in high school. He obviously likes to take what he can't have, willingly. Is that how you get off, Jacob? By forcing women to have sex with you?" I couldn't stop my damn mouth, but he deserved it.

I saw his eye twitch a little. Maybe there's something to that…

"Fuck you, Cullen. I can have any bitch I want. I would've had your girl too, if I hadn't been interrupted. She does have a tight little pussy." I've had enough of his god damn mouth!

I shoved Em off me and tackled Jacob to the ground. I fucking punched that bastard as hard as I could while I heard I slight scuffle behind me.

I grabbed his face under his chin and made him look at me, as blood was coming down the side of his face.

"I will rip your god damn insides out of you while you watch if you ever come near her. You will die the slowest, most painful death possible."

"Son, not here." I heard my dad say from behind me.

We heard two sets of feet running our way, then I was thrown off Jacob and he ran.

"Come on, go, go!" I heard, and then saw my dad leaning against the side of the building and Jasper on the ground, and Emmett getting his bearings back.

"Fucking stragglers." I muttered.

"Forget them. Let's get this mess taken care of and go home." My dad said, and then we all walked back to the warehouse.

Once everything was done, and it was the early hours of the morning, we made our way back home.

Walking into my place, we saw that no one was in the living room.

I went to check on the kids and they weren't in their beds. That had my heart speeding up a bit.

Where were they?

When I made it to my room, I figured out where they were.

Bella was on one side of my bed with Mason and Izzy in the middle. And Rose and Alice behind them on the other side.

Fucking good thing I had a California King sized bed. No fucking way they'd all fit otherwise.

"Aww damn. There's no room for me." Emmett pouted from the doorway.

"You'd take up the whole fucking bed, you oaf. Go hit the couches. There were some blankets out there." I told them, and they made their way out.

I went and changed out of my dirty, wet clothes and put on some basketball shorts and a t-shirt, then climbed into bed behind Bella.

Good thing everyone was sleeping on their sides. Freaking tight squeeze, but I was able to wrap myself around Bella.

I breathed her in and was immediately pulled into a deep sleep.

I was woken up a while later when Bella moved a little. I just tried to burry my nose deeper into her neck so I could go back to sleep.

I get the best sleep when she's with me.

Hearing her refer to this as home, made me feel really warm inside. I really liked hearing her say it like that; like it was her home too. Which it is.

"Mmmm, Mommy" I heard Izzy's little voice murmur.

Bella and I both look down at her to see that she was sleeping, but had the most contented smile on her face.

Even in her sleep, she can feel the motherly love that Bella has for her.

And she really does want Bella to be her mother. I didn't realize just how much they meant it until now.

That had my eyes a little misty.

That's all I want for them.

When Bella looked back at me with shock and tears on her face, I can't help but smile at her. But then I see pride.

She's proud to be called their mother, even if it's in sleep.

Xxx

And now, 'The Mason and Izzy Chronicles'.

MPOV

This had to be one of the best days, ever!

Uncle Em and Aunt Rose came to visit, and daddy came back home with Bella.

And everyone being at Namie and PopPop's house together for dinner was so fun. I missed having Uncle Em and Aunt Rose around all the time. I hope they get to move here, soon.

Me and Iz really missed Bella, too. She was so much fun. She made us feel like we were more than just kids, sometimes. And she and dad were always making funny eyes at each other.

I wonder if she loves our daddy…

I hope she does. Then maybe she'll be our mom, for real one day.

She even kinda has a name like Izzy's.

We ended up having a fun night together. Bella gave us a bath, and then we danced around to music in the living room. Dad even came in and danced with us, too. He picked up Iz, and I wanted to dance with Bella, so I held my arms out to her. She just smiled at me and scooped me up and spun me around.

When she was holding me in her arms, it felt like… she was really my mom. I wanted her to be that, so badly.

Daddy hasn't really had other women around us. And I don't know if that's because of us, or if he just doesn't like any of them. I hope it's not because of us. I don't want dad to be sad anymore.

He was always sad when we lived in Chicago. He only smiled when he knew we were looking. But sometimes, I would see him frown when he was looking at Aunt Rose and uncle Em, or Uncle Jazz and Aunt Ali.

But he smiles a lot more now that we're here in Seattle. And I think Bella is the reason for it. He's always smiling when she's around.

Maybe daddy's found someone to love.

I saw them making the funny eyes again while we were dancing. It was kinda cute, but I hope Bella doesn't have cooties. Because I saw dad kiss her once.

IPOV

Daddy and Bella put us to bed tonight, and I asked daddy if we were gonna be a family.

"Iz, we are a family. You, me and Mase. You know that, baby girl."

"No, daddy. I mean us and Bella. Are you gonna get married?" I asked as he tucked me in.

"Sweetheart, we're still a long way away from getting married. But trust me, you and Mason will be the first to know when we decide to get married. Do you want us to get married?"

I nodded my head fast. "Yeah. I really love her, daddy. She's so sweet and nice to us. She plays with us and reads us bedtime stories. She makes you happy, doesn't she daddy?"

"More than you know, Monkey. She's… she's what I've been waiting for. She beautiful, she's great with you and Mason, she gets along with everyone in the family, she knows me without really knowing me. We met when we were about your age, when we were living in Forks. We became best friends and we were always together. But then we had to move back to Chicago about a year after we came here, and I haven't seen her since. But being back around her, it feels like no time has passed. We just picked up from where we left off. But we do have to learn everything about each other, again. We can't just run off and get married. That's not how it works, sweetie. But… someday. You ready to sleep?"

I nodded and got down into my covers with my stuffed monkey.

When he left, I could still hear music playing. It was a really pretty song, and I wanted to hear it better, so I got up and went to my door.

I looked down the hall and saw daddy with his arms around Bella, and they were swaying to the music.

I ran to Mason's room and shook his shoulder.

"Mase, wake up. Daddy and Bella are dancing in the living room. Come on." I whispered, but almost yelled, at him.

I guess he heard me, because he was up and out in the hallway with me.

We watched as they danced, and it was so romantic. I've never seen daddy dance with anyone.

"I love you. I love you so much, Edward. I can't lose you again." We heard Bella say, and it sounded like she was crying too.

But then daddy and Bella started kissing. Then daddy lifted her off the ground while he was still kissing her.

"Mase, maybe they're gonna be together now. Maybe Bella will move in with us. Wouldn't that be cool?" I whispered, but I couldn't hold in my excitement.

"I hope so, Iz. I want us to be a real family. I want a mom."

"Me too." I said, but started thinking.

"Iz, why do you have that face that Aunt Ali gets sometimes when she's up to something?"

"Maybe because I am." I smiled.

* * *

Don't ya just wanna take those kids and cuddle them!

So, we had our first glimpse at Jacob. Douchebag, right? I wanna punch his lights out.

We'll see where things go from here. Next week, will be Bella's party.

Alrighty, so I'm gonna go get to work on MGEMP. That one's gonna take some time, too. Hopefully I won't have another week like this week.

Laters!


	11. Chapter 11

Heya!

I know, you guys probably hate me right now. But at least I'm updating now, as opposed to Friday….. although, it might be the middle of next week, or next Friday before I get MGEMP updated. I have a 3 year old's birthday party I have to make a cake and cupcakes for, so my Thursday and Friday will be spent doing that, and Saturday I have to drive 2 hours to get to said birthday party…. With a cake in the back of my car…. Oh what fun. (I hate transporting cakes)

But I will have it as soon as it's ready and is back from Lola.

So here's Edward's side of last chapter of MGEMP.

Lola is my bestest, and awesome beta. Loves, muahs.

And SM owns the ever wonderful Twilight.

Read on!

* * *

EPOV

Absolute perfection.

That's what the past two months have felt like having Bella here.

We had settled into a routine, and grew so much closer. I couldn't be happier with how things had become between us, and us and the kids. We felt like a real family.

I was so proud of Bella, too. She's grown so much from the time she left Forks until now. There have been moments where she questioned herself, but she always worked her way out of her funk.

I was wearing her down on her doubt that she's perfect in every way for me, too. She was finally starting to get it when we were out on a date and people would tell us what a beautiful couple we were together, or the time that an older woman asked us how long we had been married. I make sure she knows, everyday, how much she's loved, that the kids love her, telling her that I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with her. Taking her out on dates, or just spending a night, together, just the two of us.

I cherished all of those moments when we felt like our own little family.

But then there were the nights, or weekends, like now that sucked. I hated being away from her and Mason and Izzy, sitting in a car for hours on end, just watching for assholes like Black.

Currently, we've been here in La Push since early Saturday morning. We've been staking out what he's been up to and trying to see where we can find a weakness in his operation.

So far, we've been able to get info on his runners, guards, most of his upper circle, and so on.

We're also watching for their 'routine' when they get in a shipment. Most of their main stuff comes into Seattle. But their more… private shipments come through La Push. We've been taking turns, every weekend, keeping watch on their operations and we're hoping that maybe we can figure out a way to take them down. So far, we've only gotten a little headway with it though. But we're looking at, maybe another couple of weeks more of surveillance, and then we might have enough to go on. We don't want to jump the gun and let them know what we're up to.

What I did find suspicious, was that Charlie Swan was at Billy Black's house yesterday.

I know Bella said that her dad was friends with Billy, but I wasn't sure if he knew about the Black's mob background.

He could be the crooked cop that Black has in his pocket.

He doesn't have to really worry about La Push and its 'laws', because they were made up by the Black family.

And if he's got a cop in Forks, he's clear all the way to Seattle, where he could even have someone there to keep his ass out of trouble.

I made a call to the man we had in Seattle PD to see if we could get any of that kind of information on the Blacks.

Jenks said he hadn't heard anything around, but he had his suspicions, and was still digging.

Jenks has been on dad's payroll since we were here twenty years ago. Dad said that he wanted to keep an eye on the Blacks, and needed someone he could trust there if we ever came back.

It's a good thing too, because we've had him working non-stop since we moved back.

We had seen a couple of shipments come in, in the past day that we'd been here on stake outs. I'm pretty sure one was drugs. The other, we couldn't tell.

Jacob had been walking around pretty proud of himself today, for some reason.

I really wanted to punch that look off his face.

Bella had sent me a message last night telling me she was going to her parent's house today, and that she was gonna take the kids to the park while she was there. She didn't say exactly why she was going, but I guess her mom finally got her head out of her ass and called her.

Renee is a real piece of work, sometimes. How could you not call your daughter on her birthday and at least tell her 'happy birthday'? Does she really hold that big of a grudge when she doesn't get her way? I mean honestly, what kind of person, much less parent, holds their child back from a life that they want to create for themselves?

I really think that Renee is so unhappy with her life that she wants a 'do-over', and she's using Bella for that. She's tried to control Bella all her life, and cut her down, and made her do whatever Renee wanted, so that she would always be at her mercy. And I think the MS was just the situation to insure that she kept Bella under her thumb.

Fucking ridiculous.

I felt my pocket vibrate, and pulled out my phone, hoping it was my girl.

I was fucking wrong.

_I told you to keep a better eye on your play things. Maybe you'll get the message to stop fucking with me…_

Oh shit…

Wait, there's no way he got to her. She has guards, she…

God damn it!

My phone started ringing before I could make the call to her bodyguards.

"What!?" I yelled into the phone, thankful that I wasn't that close to where Black and his minions were at the moment.

"Boss, we got troub- SHIT! Fuck, we got trouble. I think its Black's men." I heard Alistair's voice through the phone, and I was already in motion, getting back to the car. I also heard the sounds of gunfire in the background, which had my blood running cold.

Shit, shit, shit, Bella was on the road, and she had the ki-

BLACK IS A FUCKING DEAD MAN!

I ran back to the car and literally jumped in and started screaming at dad and Jasper.

"FUCKING MOVE IT! Black's after Bella and the kids are with her. We gotta go, NOW!" Jasper was already tearing down the road at an alarming speed.

I called Alistair back to find out what the hell was going on.

"Boss, we lost her. We haven't seen her since we fell back to deal with the dogs, and we got spun. She's not on the road in front of us and we don't know if she made it to Forks, or not. We can't find her." He tried to explain, but all I caught was that they can't find her.

_We lost her…_

_We lost her…_

_We lost her…_

Shit, where are they?

We drove as fast as we could back towards Forks, and made our way to the Swan's house.

I jumped out of the car, up the stairs, and started pounding on the door.

It took a few minutes, but Renee finally opened the door.

"What in the hell- oh, you. What are you doing here? I thought Bella was coming to help me. Where is she?" She asked, looking around me.

"I could ask you the same damn thing. She told me she was coming here with the kids, and then someone started chasing her. Now she's missing. What the hell happened!?" My voice kept rising with each word I spoke, but I was pissed and I wanted my family.

Renee had the decency to look upset. "I don't know. Umm, I asked Charlie yesterday morning if he would help me get things set up for Thanksgiving and get the stuff from the attic so I could try to get the Christmas tree up. He said he 'didn't have time for that shit' and told me to call Bella, since she's always there to help. And I did. I called her yesterday and she said she'd be here today. I swear, I don't know what happened. What do you know?"

"You just answered my question. I'll deal with Charlie later. I've gotta go find Bella and the kids." I turned and ran back down the stairs and jumped back in the car. "She has to be on the stretch of road from Seattle to here. She basically told me what I needed to know about Charlie. He's the one that told her to call Bella. He knew that if he refused to help Renee, she would call Bella first, and Bella would probably come running. He had to have told Black about that. The dog probably had her followed and got Stefan and Alistair out of the way so they could get to her. We've gotta go through that stretch of road with a fine tooth comb to see what happened." I told them as we made our way out of Forks and towards Seattle.

"Edward, did you try the kids' locators? Or Bella's?" Dad asked from the front seat, and then I felt like a dumbass.

"Fuck, no I haven't yet. Let me look." I took out my phone and pulled up the system that had everyone's locator trackers. I looked and saw three blips on the screen. "They're together. But it's only giving me an approximate location. They could be within a couple of miles of the blips because of the area being a virtual dead zone. I'm surprised they even showed up." Shit, we were lucky that they were working.

"Where?" Jasper asked, since he was driving.

"About halfway to Seattle on this road. Alistair said the fuckers spun them and they were already far enough behind Bella and the kids that they lost them. Fuck, dad they can't be…" I couldn't even finish that thought.

I can't lose them. Not now. I just got Bella back, and my kids are too young… they have to be ok.

"They're going to be fine, Edward. Don't think about that, right now. We just need to focus on finding them, and making sure they're safe." Dad said, trying to calm me.

I don't even know if it was working, I was so anxious and scared.

They have to be ok.

We drove further down the road and spotted the SUV that Alistair and Stefan were in and pulled off the road.

They came to a stop behind us and got out.

"Anything?" I asked them as I got out and started looking around.

"No. the dogs took off and I haven't seen anything of them or the Volvo. You didn't see anything that looked like the dogs' SUV on the way here?" Stefan said as he stood by Alistair.

I shook my head. "No, but I pulled up the trackers, and they have to be a little further up the road."

"We looked, we didn't see anything. They could have run them off the road, and they're just further into the trees than we thought." Alistair said.

"Let's go back that way, and check both sides of the road. Anything that looks freshly disturbed, or any tired skids. I want to look at all of it. Go!" I ordered, walking back towards the suburban.

We all got back in and worked our way up the road, just looking for any signs.

A little while later, we saw Stefan brake, sharply, and spin the SUV around onto the side of the road.

We pulled off the road and joined them.

"You see the tired tracks? Now look at this." Stefan pointed towards the trees, where it looked like several branches had been broken off, recently.

I looked down at my phone again, and the blips were close. Very close.

"Alright, grab flashlights and whatever else you'll need. We're going in." Dad ordered, and we all grabbed our stuff, and then turned to head into the trees.

We followed the path of broken tree limbs, and tire trails that went deep into the woods. It went for almost a mile, and then stopped where there was a large hill.

Shit.

We walked over and looked down the long drop that looked kind of steep. But what I saw at the bottom had me almost puking.

There sat my crumpled Volvo, almost completely on its side.

"BELLA!"

~The Izzy and Mason Chronicles~

IPOV

I was starting to get really scared when Mommy B told us to get as far down in the seat as we could and cover up with the blanket.

I looked over at Mason and saw the same thing I was feeling. Fear.

We got under the blanket and since our seats were right beside each other, I leaned over towards Mason, and he leaned over top of me, so that I was more protected.

We felt the car jump forward, and it really scared me.

What were those people doing?

I didn't like it.

"Mase, I'm scared." I started crying when the car jumped again.

"I know, Iz. I won't let anything happen to you, though."

Mason was so strong, but I knew he was as scared as I was. But he was just like daddy; he always thought of the people he loved first.

I felt the car start jumping sideways, this time, and it felt like the other car was right beside us, but I was too scared to look.

Then it started getting bumpy.

"Mase, what's happening? I don't like this." I kept crying.

"I don't know, sissy." I could hear that he was crying a little too.

The car stopped, and I thought it was done moving, but then it felt like we were in a dryer, getting tumbled around.

Mommy B yelled for us to hold onto something, and I just grabbed onto the seat and Mason.

We both started crying for mommy and screaming because we didn't know if we were gonna live. It was just so scary.

It felt like forever, but we finally stopped moving with an 'oomph'.

I was really scared to look from under the blanket. I had felt a bunch of stuff hit my arms, and they hurt. And one of my legs was hurting, too. But it wasn't really bad.

I think the blanket helped keep whatever from hitting us so hard.

I heard mommy saying our names, calling us her babies, but she went quiet after that.

Mason was the first one to look out from under the blanket.

It kind of felt like we were just hanging there, which I found out we sort of were when I peeked out.

The car was sitting almost on its side, and I could see mommy with her head up against the window.

She looked like she was asleep.

"Mase, get me out of here. I wanna be with mommy." I started crying again, and struggling with the seatbelt.

"Hold on, Iz." He said, then unbuckled himself, and almost fell out of his seat.

He reached his feet down so he could touch the door and stand on it.

"Ok, stop squirming, Iz." He said as he tried to get me out.

Once he did, I almost fell out of my seat, too, but Mason stopped me from falling.

I turned around and looked up into the front seat, scared at what I was looking at around us.

The car didn't look like it used to, anymore. There was some broken glass, there were white bag thingies around, and it was just really creepy.

I carefully climb into the front seat and checked on mommy.

She wasn't moving, but she looked like she was breathing.

I didn't know if she was hurt, so I crawled as close to her as I could, and sat halfway in her lap, and wrapped her arm that was there around me. I leaned my head on her shoulder and just cried.

"Mommy, please wake up. Don't leave us." I said, hoping she could hear me.

I felt Mason climb in the front with us, and he curled up behind me with his head on my back, and his arms around me.

I hoped daddy would find us soon.

* * *

Tears? Anyone? I know I had a few when I wrote the Izzy and Mason part.

Alright, again, I'll have MGEMP up just as soon as it's ready. I'm not gonna leave you guys too terribly long on that side.

I'll see you guys as soon as possible. I promise!

Laters!


	12. Chapter 12

Hello all! I know, you guys probably hate me for leaving it of in MGEMP like that. Sorry, I couldn't help it.

Anyways, as you guys saw from the last chapter of MGEMP, she's gone before he gets to the car. And I know some people were worried about it lagging and taking lots of chapters before he finds her. Don't worry, I'm not gonna let it be more than a couple of chapters… well, between the two stories, maybe like 3 chapters or something. Still working on it.

Alright, down to the good stuff. Who else about lost their shit when they saw BD2? Anyone? My entire theater was screaming and freaking the fuck out during the fight. Some people around me were crying. I was about in tears too. That shit was fucked up. But the movie was sooooo incredibly amazing, and really about as close to the book as it could possibly get. I approve 100% for how they did it. Minus the shady as fuck part there towards the end… you know, the midnight release nights are really the best experiences for the movies. You really get the best reactions from the groups that are committed and loyal fans that made a point to go to the midnight shows. Well in my case it was 10:00. Lol, good call on that one Summit.

Anywho, so Lola is my beta. And she has nominated me for an Energize W.I.P. most promising twilight fanfic- canon award. If you didn't see the a/n I posted the other day, go find it and go vote please! Laurie was also nominated for best beta. (because she is the best:D) Muahs.

And SM owns twilight, and is probably responsible for my anxiety in that damn fight scene last night, along with bill condon. Lol

Alrighty, read on!

And Happy BD opening weekend!

* * *

EPOV

Looking down at the car wreckage, it looked like it had been through hell.

I needed to get down there.

Good thing we thought to bring a rope with us.

"Dad, tie that rope off to a tree. I need to get down there to them. Alistair, I need you down there. They're probably hurt." I rushed out, looking for a good spot to repel down.

Alistair was medically trained, and would have been a doctor if he hadn't joined the business. But I'm thankful that he joined us. Having a doctor on hand saves us from having to go to the hospital, unless it's something really serious.

Dad went to a tree; that looked sturdy and was close enough to the hill that we could get down, and tied the rope around it. He then handed it to me.

I went straight down, and saw Jasper and dad coming down behind me. And Alistair behind them.

I rushed over to the car and knelt down in front of the windshield, noticing there was glass all over the ground.

Looking in, I saw the two most scared faces, curled up and wrapped around each other.

"DADDY! Daddy, they took momma! You have to find her! She's gotta be so scared, daddy." They both started talking at the same time.

And I looked closer and saw that Bella wasn't in the car at all.

_Oh my god. She's gone. Those bastards have her._

My insides decided to twist at that knowledge.

Shit.

Izzy and Mason had crawled out of the car after Jasper told them to get the blanket to put down on the ground so they wouldn't get cut. They ran straight to me, tackling me to the ground, hugging the life out of me.

"Oh my babies. Are you two ok? Are you hurt at all?" I asked, looking them over for injury.

Izzy pulled back and looked up at me with a scared look and started crying. I wasn't sure why. Maybe she _was _hurt.

"That's what momma called us when they took her away!" She wailed them crumbled into my arms.

"Oh sweetheart. It'll be ok, baby. We'll get her back. I promise." I tried to comfort her, rubbing my hand over her hair and down her back.

I looked over at Mason beside us, and he had tears streaming down his face, too.

I held up my pinky to Mason. "I promise, buddy." I told him, and he linked his pinky with mine, and shook.

It's something Bella and I had started doing with the kids over the past month. If we made a promise to them, we pinky promised. It was something they had seen Bella and I do together, and they wanted to be in on it somehow. So we started doing that with them.

Hopefully it would be a comfort right to him right now.

"Are either of you hurt? You need to tell me in case we need to take you to the hospital." I asked the kids, and Mason just shook his head.

"No, we're ok. Just feel achy all over. Momma told us to put the blanket over us and to get down in the seats." Izzy told me with her head still pretty much buried in my shoulder.

Oh my Bella. She always thinks of others first.

God, I hope she's ok.

Alistair came over and took a look at the kids to check and make sure they were, in fact, not harmed.

They definitely were, emotionally. But getting Bella back would be the best medicine for that.

I stood up with Izzy in my arms and holding Mason's hand.

I turned to my dad. "I want everyone on this, dad. Someone has gotta know who exactly took her, and where. They couldn't have gotten far."

He put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. "I know, son. I'll call in the orders as soon as we're back in the car. They got a pretty good head start, but we'll get them out looking for her. Come here, Mason." My dad picked up Mason and we started walking back towards the cars.

Once the kids were strapped in the back of the SUV, dad turned to all of us.

"Jasper, call in everyone. I don't care where they are, or what they're doing. Get them here and searching." Then he turned to me. "Call Em and Rose. They're gonna want to know about this. Rose is gonna be pissed." I just nodded at him.

Yeah, Rose was definitely gonna be pissed. She'd be scared for Bella, too. The two of them and Alice have grown so close over the past couple of months, and they would be just as devastated if something happened to Bella.

Dad was talking to Alistair and Stefan, probably trying to figure out what the hell happened earlier.

When they were all done, we jumped back in the cars and made our way back to Seattle, while Stefan and Alistair went to Forks and La Push.

Once we got to mom and dads, there was a flurry of activity going on. Everyone was running everywhere and we jumped right in with them.

I called Em and Rose before we made our way to dad's office.

"Hey Ed!" he greeted me in a cheery voice.

I sighed, wishing I could be that upbeat. "Hey man. Umm…" I trailed off, trying to swallow the lump in my throat to tell him.

I could hear the change in his voice, going serious. "Ed, what's going on, dude?"

"Em… They took her. They took Bella." I told him, quietly, or else I would have broken down.

"WHAT?! What the fuck are you talking about? What happened?" I could hear the worry in his voice now. Then I heard him yell into the background. "Rosie! We need tickets to Seattle, now!"

I knew he'd come running when he found out. He's just as worried about her as we are.

I told him all I knew about what happened, and, as expected, he was livid.

"" as expected, he was you fucking shitting me!? I'm gonna strangle him with my bare hands when I get there! Have you guys found anything yet?" he asked, as I heard shuffling in the background.

"No, nothing yet. We're working on it. No leads yet, though… I need you here, Em. You're one of the best at finding people. I can't do this without your help." I told him, strain in my voice.

"You don't even have to ask, bro. We're already on the way. We'll be there as fast as we can. Hang tight. We'll find her and bring her home." He said as I heard them rev up their Jeep and take off, presumably to the airport.

We went up to dad's office and started going ever every single detail that we've come up with so far.

"I sent guys to La Push to get a look around, and even Forks. I don't trust Charlie at all. He could be 'looking the other way' while Black has Bella stashed somewhere right under his nose. They had a big head start, but if we get everyone on this, we'll find her faster. I don't think they're stupid enough to bring her back to Seattle, but I had guys watching the roads back here and they didn't see anything yet. I'm sending some guys to Black's warehouses, too. We need to look everywhere. Get whatever info you can on him and all of their properties. Or anyone in that organization. I want people checking everywhere. They're not gonna go for an obvious place." Dad said, then looked over to where I was pacing. "Edward, we'll find her, son."

I stopped and looked out the window, raking my hands through my hair. I can't stop thinking.

_Where is she?_

_What does he want with her?_

_How did they know she was on that road, at that time? _

_How did they know that they would need two SUV's to get to her?_

_Is she still alive?_

I didn't want to dwell on that last one.

One thing was still just bugging me, though.

"Why didn't they take the kids? If it was supposed to be a hit at me, then why just take her? I'm incredibly grateful they didn't, but that's not Black's way of doing things. He would have made the message stick." I said to the men around me.

Dad and Jasper looked just as puzzled as I was.

"That's a very good question." Dad sighed then spoke again. "Have you talked to Izzy and Mason? Did they say anything about if they heard anything when they took her?"

I shook my head. "Mason hasn't said anything since we found them. I think he's just stuck in his own head right now. He's worried. And I haven't asked Izzy yet. Let me go see if they're still awake." I turned and walked out of the room and down the hall to where their room was.

When I opened the door, I saw my mom in the bed with both of the kids on either side of her. Mason was staring at the wall with a sad look on his face, and Izzy looked like she was crying.

I walked in and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Hey you two." I whispered to get their attention. Izzy shot up and crawled over to me and wrapped her arms around me. "Hey sweetheart. Can I ask you guys something?" She nodded her head. "Did the bad men say anything when they came and took mommy B?"

Izzy sniffled a little then looked up at me. "They said we weren't supposed to be in the car. And when we tried to get them to leave her alone, they hit Mase and told us to shut up, that they weren't there for us. They were mean, daddy. I don't want momma to be around those men."

"I know baby. I don't either." I looked over at Mason and he still looked like he was off in space. "Mase? You ok, buddy?"

He sat there for a moment, and then turned his sad eyes to me. "What if momma doesn't ever come home, daddy? What are we gonna do?" He said in a defeated whisper.

"Oh Mase. Come here." I told him, and he finally showed some emotion, and started crying as he jumped over to me. "Mason, I promise I'm gonna find her and bring her home. We just found her, we're not gonna lose her. We're gonna be a family, one day. And we need Bella to complete that. So she's gotta come back, right?" He nodded. I kissed his head, then Izzy's. "Alright, I'm gonna go see what else we've found out about where she might be. You two need to get some sleep. I think Namie needs some help tomorrow making cookies. Can you two help her?" They both nodded again. "Ok, well let's get into bed."

They both got under the covers of Izzy's bed and curled up together. I kissed them goodnight, and left my mom alone in the room with them, and made my way back to dad's office.

We worked late into the night, tracking down every single lead we could find. And came up with nothing so far.

Emmett and Rosalie finally arrived at about seven-thirty, and Em jumped right in with the rest of us.

I didn't sleep that night. Neither did dad, Jasper or Em. None of us wanted to run the risk of missing something and not being there for it.

But by the second day, Ma told us all to go and get at least a few hours of sleep in and she wasn't budging on it either. She literally yanked us out of the room by our ears and told us to go sleep, and that she would come get us if anything came in.

We did this for over a week.

A fucking WEEK!

I've been trying to keep Izzy and Mason calm and distracted with Ma and Alice and Rose. But they weren't being fooled. They knew Bella wasn't any closer to being found, yet.

We put off Thanksgiving, too. Ma, and especially Izzy and Mason, said that they didn't want to spend the holiday without Bella here. So we were waiting until she was found to have a Thanksgiving dinner.

I was starting to get to the end of my rope. And now, I was going to go a different route.

I didn't want to go and threaten the man, but no one's seen Black, and I want fucking answers.

So dad, Jazz, Em and I piled into the SUV and headed to Forks.

We found out that he wasn't at the station, so we figured he'd be at home.

When we pulled up in front of the Swan house, we all jumped out of the SUV and walked up to the front door, and I pounded on the door, relentlessly.

The door was finally wretched open, and it was a good thing that he was the one to answer.

"What in the ever loving fuck is this shit?!" He snarled when he saw us.

Em stepped up and just laid Charlie out on the floor with a single punch.

"I'm the one asking the questions, Asswipe. And Emmett here is going to take out his anger on you if we don't like the answers we get. She's been missing for a god damn week, and I know you're working as Black's little crooked cop. I saw you in La Push the other weekend, and you looked awfully chummy with them. So, I suggest you get your head out of your ass and tell us where she is." I told him in an eerie voice, hoping that he knew I wasn't fucking around.

"Fuck off you little shit. That brat has been nothing but a pain in the ass since she was born- "He started, but I lunged forward and punched him in the face to shut him the fuck up.

"If you ever talk about her like that again, I will rip your god damn tongue out and shove it up your ass. She's your daughter, and you just handed her over to Black so he could do god knows what to her? What kind of fucking father are you? You're sick and disgusting. You've always seen her as a 'problem', when she's really one of the most amazing people I've ever known. You have no idea what you're throwing away. She has become a mother to my kids, and I'll be damned if you're gonna help keep her from them. Do you know that my son won't say anything, now? He's said maybe a total of four sentences since the accident. He keeps looking out the window of my parent's house, hoping she's gonna come walking up the path to the front door. My daughter, who I would fucking NEVER treat the way you've treated Bella, hasn't stopped crying. She wants her mother. And you, you sorry sack of shit, helped Black take her away from them. Just be glad that they aren't biologically hers, because you would already be dead by now if that were the case. NOW FUCKING TELL ME WHERE SHE IS!" I yelled in his face as I slammed his upper body into the ground again.

"I don't know where she is!" He yelled back at me, trying to get the upper hand on me.

"Not good enough, you pussy." I snarled, and punched him in the nose, hearing a crunch of the bone.

"God damn it! All I know is that it was somewhere in the tropics. Somewhere around Mexico. I don't know exactly where." He said in a heaving voice. He acted like it was no big deal that she was gone.

What a fucking douche.

"You better pray that I find her alive. Or I will put you through the worst torture, humanly imaginable." I told him, and reared back and punched him again.

I got up and joined the rest of the guys and we left the Swan house, and made our way back to Seattle.

Dad made a call on the way back, telling some of the guys that were doing research to look for someplace tropical that Black might have properties.

It was late into the night again, and we were working on absolutely everything.

Jasper was hunched over a few different maps, Em was going through computer images, dad was going through flight information again, and I was looking at the comparisons of the images of Black's properties to see if there was anything that might help; if they would have stopped off, if he's taking her there next, etc.

Jasper jumped up. "I think I found it!" We all dropped everything we were doing and rushed over to him. "Ok, Charlie said somewhere tropical. But he was wrong about it being around Mexico. Kingman Reef has a group of islands that Black's great uncle owns. I guess he passed them on to Billy or Jacob. But in all of the research we've done, no one has checked out this place yet. And most of the other tropical places Black owns are stopping points for his business. This group of islands doesn't seem to have anything to it. Nothing that would say that it's inhabited. Like it's just sitting there. This is a ways off Hawaii, so no one really checks on it, and no one visits it. If he wants her somewhere that no one would find her, and he spared no expense to do this, then he had to have hired someone to get her on a private plane to take her down there. The only thing is, where's Black in all of this? No one's seen him in a while."

"I don't care where he's at right now. As long as he's not on that island with her, then I'll track his ass down later. We need to get there, now!" I said, as I gathered up all the things we would need to find the islands, and made my way to my room to get some shit together.

That bastard better be hiding, because as soon as I find my girl, he's a dead man.

* * *

See? I told you it wouldn't take too long in chapter length. Sort of. Lol

Alright, next week it'll be MGEMP. You'll find out how Bella's doing on the island.

Until then my dears,

Laters!


	13. Chapter 13

Hi everyone! Did all my American readers have a good Thanksgiving? And then Black Friday, small business Saturday and cyber Monday? Anyone else think they're taking this shit a little too far over the edge? I DO!

Anyways, sorry. I have an issue with all these stores trying to make Christmas a fucking joke.

Ok, so we're gonna find out if Edward finds Bella. Do you guys think she'll be ok? I've got some plans working in my mind, but I've gotta get them all straightened out so I can write them down. I'm gonna get MGEMP out as soon as I can. Pinky promise.

I love all of your reviews too! I get some of the best thoughts from people, some I even bring into the story. So ya never know what your review will do…. Lol

Oh, another little reminder; I know nothing about kingman reef. All of what I've written for these stories is just from my mind, not actual facts of the region. So don't come at me with shit about that. Savvy?

And I'm still so excited that MGEMP won a freakin contest! I never win anything! It just goes to show that I have the best readers ever. *big hugs*

I also have the best beta ever too;) she even won :D love my Lola(LaurieWhitlock)

SM owns Twilight, and I'm so damn ready to go back and see BD2 again. Anyone else?

Soooo, I think that's it for this week.

Read on!

* * *

EPOV

Jasper never really fucking specified how many god damn islands there were that Black had.

I'll tell you now, it's a lot. At least a couple dozen.

Dad, Jasper, Em, Alistair and myself, have spent so much time going over each island, looking for any sign of Bella being anywhere on them.

But we haven't seen anything yet.

I'm not gonna give up though. Mason and Izzy are counting on me to bring her home. And I know she's counting on me to be there to save her. I told her I'd always be there for her.

I've gotta find her.

We've been flying around in Jasper's helicopter for the past ten hours, and I wasn't sure if we'd be able to search in the air when it got dark. We left last night when we found out she'd probably be on one of these islands, but having to fly from island to island, and do a search of each island, is taking forever to do.

But we're not stopping. I'll find some lanterns and flashlights in the back and go around the islands by myself, if I have to.

I'm going to find her. Today.

We're coming up on our fifteenth island, and it's starting to get dark, now. It's about five in the afternoon here, and with it being the end of November, it's getting dark early.

It's quiet in the cabin, except for the sound of the propellers of the helicopter.

We begin circling around the current island and I hear something ringing.

Jasper flips a switch and talks into the headset.

"Blackhawk." The only people that would know how to reach us were trusted members of the organization. And from the sound of it, it's probably Uncle Ty.

"What do you mean? At Edward's place?" I looked over at him, my brow furrowed. "Here, talk to him. He'll be able to tell you better." He said, and flipped a couple more switches and then I heard Uncle Ty's voice.

"Edward? You there?"

"Yeah, I'm here. What's going on?" I asked, still looking out at the island.

"Um, when was the last time you were at your home, Edward?" Uhhh, good question. I don't really know.

"I'm not sure. Probably since a day or two before Bella was taken? Why, what's wrong?" I asked, knowing something had to be up for him to ask that.

"There seems to be a problem. I didn't notice it at first, but when I went in to check on the place, and get more clothes and toys for the kids, something seemed different. So I started looking around, and noticed that all of the pictures of Bella are gone. Anything that she was in isn't here. Kid, I think someone's been in here. I'm on my way to look up the security tapes for the elevator and the floors for the family suites. This just doesn't feel right." He told me.

Shit. What the fuck is going on?

How did someone get into my place, is what's bugging me.

Even more so, why take the pictures of Bella?

None of this makes any sense to me.

I mean, Black is probably behind it, but what does he want with Bella?

"Uncle Ty, check Bella's place too. Make sure nothing's out of place there. Call me back and let me know what you find. Something's going on, and I've gotta get it taken care of before I bring Bella home." I tell him, praying that it's not what I'm thinking.

If someone was in my place, and they knew where Bella lived, then they could have just as easily gotten into hers, too.

I want to know how the fuck they were able to get into my apartment, with all of the safety measures we've got in place. No one should be able to gain access up to that level, much less get into our apartments.

I don't like this.

Once I hang up with Uncle Ty, we continue circling the island.

I can make out, what looks like a path of feet in the sand. Like someone has been walking it several times.

My heart rate picks up at this.

This could mean that she's here.

"Jazz, look." I pointed towards the beach.

"You think…" He started, and then looked over at me, I nodded.

"Yeah. It has to be…" I said, and then he started making preps to land on the beach.

There's a side of the island where the beach is wider than the rest of the island, so there should be enough room to land the helicopter.

As Jasper is making his way down with the helicopter, I see a dark spot in the sand a little ways up the beach from where we're landing.

I look closer and I start to see that it looks like a body. And a pair of boots that look like the ones she just bought a few weeks ago.

"Oh my god. It's her. Jazz, get the hell down there, now. She's not moving." I told him, with urgency in my voice now, noticing that she wasn't, in fact, moving.

As I stayed focused on her form, I saw what looked like blood around her arm and leg, and I started panicking.

"Alistair? I need you down there. She's hurt." I said into the headset.

"What does she look like?" He asked since he can't really see well from where he's sitting.

"She seems to be unconscious and I can see blood around her arm and leg, but I can't tell anything else from here."

"Ok, just wanna make sure I've got what I need in my bag when we get out there." He said, and it sounded like he was rustling in his bag.

Thank god we thought to bring Alistair with us. Not only was he her guard, but he was our on call doctor for things like this.

Once Jasper set the helicopter down, I was undoing my safety belts, throwing off my headset, and jumping out of the door.

I didn't even stop, I just ran straight for where she was laying on the ground.

"BELLA! Baby, wake up... Come on beautiful. I need to see your eyes…" I said when I fell to my knees beside her.

I started checking her over, and saw that her leg looked like an animal had gotten hold of her. There were cuts all over, and it was worrisome looking.

Her arm looked about the same, with blood everywhere.

She was pale, and a little thinner, too.

I don't know what's out here that she could have possibly eaten, but she had to have had something to last this long.

The blood looks to be pretty fresh, so she couldn't have been down for long.

"Edward, don't move her. She may have more injuries that we can't see." I heard Alistair say coming up behind me to check on her.

"What do you think of this?" I asked, pointing to her leg where there were cuts torn into her boot, and blood staining it.

He looked at it for a moment as the others made their way over to where we were, and then he looked back up at me.

"I think she's incredibly lucky that she was wearing those. They probably helped keep whatever attacked her from doing more damage."

I could hear something rustling in the trees not far from us, and it sounded like oinking.

Pigs?

"Wild boars. That's what I think got her. They get very defensive, and will attack." Alistair said as he took Bella's boot off and examined her leg. "Yeah, that's what attacked her. This boot probably saved her life, but I still need to treat her for infection and get her stitched up. Hopefully she hasn't been out here long enough for it to have gotten too far into her system. Her arm, on the other hand, is gonna need more attention. That's probably more likely where any infection would come from since it appears to be more damaged. I'll get her fixed up though so we can get her home."

I heard the oinking get closer, and turned to see a couple of wild boars coming out of the trees.

They looked pretty damn aggressive and pissed. Then they started charging at us, and I pulled my gun out, and shot one, hoping the others would back the hell off.

Obviously not.

I took aim again, and hit the other two.

Fucking crazy ass animals.

"Well, now that that's taken care of, we're going to check around the island to see if there's any sign of Black. We'll try to only be gone an hour. If you need us, we're starting on the east side, going around the north, and Emmett will go to the west, and we'll meet at the north, and work our way through the trees." Dad said, as he looked down where Bella was laying on the ground. "Do everything you can for her, Alistair. She's got a lot of people waiting for her to come home."

"Will do, boss." Alistair said as he got to work on Bella, and Dad and Jasper took off in one direction, and Emmett took off in the other.

Over the next hour or so, Alistair worked on Bella's leg and arm, and checked over the rest of her to see if there were any other injuries.

She ended up having a little over a dozen stitches in her leg and a couple dozen in her arm as well, and wrapped them both up.

"She'll be in some pain for a while, but I'll give her something for it. These seem to be her only real injuries. Other than being a little malnourished, she looks to be ok aside from the bites. We'll just have to keep an eye on her in case she reacts to any infection she might have gotten. But I think she's in the clear. I just want to be on the safe side. We're good to take her home." Alistair said, as he finished bandaging Bella up.

She was still so pale. She needs some liquid and a good meal.

While Alistair had been working on her though, I had been thinking.

There's no way she's going back to Seattle right now. Not knowing where Black is, or what he wanted with her, I don't feel safe taking her back to where he'll easily be able to find her.

I started thinking of places that I could take her, but nothing was coming to mind.

Until Emmett came back with Dad and Jasper.

"No sign of the douchebag, and there's nothing else on this island, aside from animals." Emmett said as they walked back over to check on Bella.

"How is she?" Dad asked.

"She's not entirely out of the woods, but she should pull through. We just need to keep an eye on her." Alistair explained what he told me a little while ago.

"Alright, then let's get her loaded up so we can get her home." Dad said as he got all of his stuff together.

"We're not taking her home…" I told them, and they looked at me like I was insane. "I can't risk him getting her again. Until he's dealt with, I don't want her to be in the line of fire. I don't want the kids at risk either, after the phone call with Uncle Ty, earlier. I'm going to keep them all safe." I told them, as my plan was starting to solidify in my head.

"Edward, son what are you talking about?" Dad asked, trying to understand what I was getting at.

I looked over to Emmett. "Em, can you make a call for me? I need Ro's help."

* * *

Soooo where's he gonna take her? (Shut it Laurie) This is where that little issue I had a while back comes into play where I don't want people hounding me because I happen to use the same city as another mafia story, or two. The city is practically in my back yard, so back off. It's one of my absolute favorite places in the world, and there's even been national results saying that it's the #1 city in the U.S., and I'm proud that I live so close to it. I actually really want to live there. It really is a wonderful city.

You'll get more details on it later, promise.

Anyways, I'm gonna go get to work on MGEMP, and I'll see you guys when it's done.

Laters!


	14. Chapter 14

Hello my lovelies! Who's ready for another chapter?!

I thought so!

You guys, seriously? I just can't tell you how grateful and happy I am every time I post a new chapter, and get these amazing reviews. And I couldn't believe the amount of people from South Carolina that are actually reading this! I never would've known. Lol *high five to my peeps from south cakalaky* ;)

I told you guys it'll be slow going until after the holidays, and it will be, but I think the next chapter of MGEMP will be kinda short, but the next one of this story will be a little bigger. So that one will take a little longer. So stay with me and I'll have it out soon.

I'll see you guys at the bottom!

Read on!

* * *

EPOV

I'm sitting here in the helicopter again, on the way back to Seattle, thinking about all of this shit that's going on.

I didn't want to tell Bella everything, but I told her enough about the intrusions into our places.

I was just so focused on her, and making sure she stayed calm. I didn't want her stressed out and worried the whole time I was gone. I wanted her to focus on getting better, and being with the kids.

Mason and Izzy were so damn excited to see her, too.

I told them after they came running into Bella's room and jumped on us, that they needed to be careful with her; that she was hurt and needed to be taken care of.

I knew, without a doubt, that Mason and Iz would be on top of things. They took that kind of 'job' very seriously, and made sure that whoever needed care was sufficiently relaxed and didn't need to get up or move a muscle.

But they were so fucking worried.

-_flashback-_

"_Momma, were those men the ones that hurt you?" Izzy asked in a small voice after they had calmed down some, after they came in and jumped on us._

"_No, baby. They didn't have a chance to. It was a couple of very wild animals that hurt me. But Mr. Alistair stitched me up when they found me, and I'll be better soon." Bella told them, trying to calm their worry._

_Mason still hadn't said much and he was warily looking at her heavily bandaged arm and leg._

"_Mase? You alright, buddy?" I asked him._

_He looked over to me then back to Bella, then his eyes landed back on me, and I could see that he was scared._

"_Daddy, you hafta make sure they can't come back to get momma. She can't leave us again…" He said with tears welling up in his eyes._

"_Oh sweet boy, come here." Bella said as she carefully pulled Mason over into her lap. "Baby, I'm not going anywhere. I promise you. I'm gonna be around to watch you and Izzy grow up to be wonderful, successful, and happy. Watch you graduate from high school and college, see you each get married, have your own kids and watch them grow up. I'll always be there for it. I'm not going to let those mean men take that away from me or from you." She looked up to me, and I just nod at what she's asking me; if this is all the right stuff to be saying. "You're my children and I will fight tooth and nail to always be there for you. But there are even times like recently that I may be… taken away for a short time, but I will always_, always_ come back to you both."_

"_I'll always be there to bring her back, too, Mase. Mommy is too important to me, and I don't know what I'd do if I ever lost her. I'm gonna do everything in my power to make sure she stays safe. Mommy's not going anywhere, buddy. I promise." I held my pinky finger up to him, and he hooked his with mine, in our little pinky promise. _

"_We gotta trust daddy, Mase. He never lets us down." Izzy whispered to her brother and I couldn't keep the tears from falling a little. Izzy knew how to bring emotions out in people. _

I knew Mason was just as scared, if not more than Izzy or me, of losing Bella. He seems to be so much more attached to her than I ever thought. I wouldn't call it being a 'momma's boy', but he wanted that mother and son connection.

I always thought Izzy would be more connected to her. This is not to say that she isn't as connected to Bella as Mason, but I think part of it is because Izzy is a daddy's girl and believes that daddy can do anything in the world. Mason just may be a bit more of a realist, and could be a sign that he's growing up quickly. That he's able to see the evils in the world a little more than he had before.

We all spent the rest of the night curled up in Bella's bed; all four of us. The kids didn't want to be away from Bella, and neither did I. And I wanted to spend whatever time I could with them before I had to go back home.

Emmett's dad; our uncle Ed, and Em's brother, Anthony had come to Seattle a few days ago to help us out with the hunt for Black.

Anthony was a little older than Em. He was almost thirty, now. And he was being groomed to take over in Chicago for Uncle Ed. He and Em had been doing a great job in Chicago since we'd been back in Seattle, so I had no doubt that Anthony could handle things on his own.

Emmett was determined to be moved to Seattle by Christmas. They'd already been moving things here little by little. They were planning on staying at the hotel for however long they wanted, and in a few years, were going to start looking at houses.

We'd all had the same thought; that for now, staying at the hotel was a good starting point until we had things well established, and settled.

But with the break-in, I'm starting to worry.

We finally make it back to Seattle after a few hours, and Jasper landed in the expansive area of the yard at our parents' house. Dad had a landing pad put in so Jasper could house it there, along with all the storage and upkeep tools for it.

"Ok, let's go figure out what the hell all this stuff is that Tyler found at the hotel, before we go over there." Dad said as we got out of the helicopter and got everything covered up.

We made our way inside, kissing Ma's cheek, and hugging Alice.

"Rose stayed, I guess?" Ma asked when she didn't see Rosalie come in with us.

Rose had brought the kids to Charleston, and decided she was gonna stay there to help Bella out while she healed. She knew Bella would need some help with certain things, and wouldn't feel comfortable with Alistair helping her, so she graciously accepted her help.

And with Rose knowing the area, she could get out a little and see the sights with the kids.

"Yeah, they both felt better with her being there; what with Bella still healing and all. Also to help out with the kids. I think they're both kind of happy to have some time together. I know Bella has missed her. She gets to spend all her girl time with Alice lately, and they had been plotting a girl's weekend for whenever they finally move out here. Maybe you all can do that when this is over and done with." I told her, turning my tone serious at the end.

"Of course we will. Now go on and do whatever you need to so she can come home. I miss my other daughter." She said, hugging Alice to her side.

I nodded and ran up the stairs to dad's office, a.k.a. command central.

Dad, Uncle Tyler, Uncle Ed, Uncle Eleazar, Em, Jasper, Anthony, and Eric were all in dad's office when I got there.

"Alright Ty, tell us what we're looking at." Dad said as we all sat in the mass amount of chairs that had accumulated in dad's office. I guess I hadn't noticed that when we were in here working before.

"Well, after I called you, I went down to the offices at the hotel and started going through things to see if there was anything off, and looked through the surveillance videos. It took a little while to go through everything, but I did find one thing." Uncle Ty said, and then laid out a couple of pictures on the table. "This person went into both Edward and Bella's apartments. Nothing else, aside from the pictures, seems to be disturbed, but I think you should go in and check over that, Edward, since you'd know better if anything else was missing."

I looked at the picture of the woman that went into Bella's apartment, and saw that it looked like Tanya, but she seemed to be wearing a wig. The woman in the picture had long brown hair, which could have been mistaken for Bella, but I'd know better. This woman was much taller, had a pointier nose, and blue eyes.

Nothing like my girl.

"Tanya. Why the fuck would she do this?" I asked, mostly to myself, but then looked closer at the other picture. "What the ever loving fuck?"

"What is it Edward?" Jasper asked as he sat up closer from his seat beside me.

"Look, they're not the same person. Tanya went into Bella's apartment, but someone else was in mine. Look closer. Their faces aren't the same, and Tanya's a little taller." I told him, showing him the pictures in my hands.

"What? Dude, are you sure?" Em asked as he came over to look too.

"Yeah. Just look at it."

They all looked the pictures over, passing them around to see what I was talking about.

"I can't really tell who the other one is, but we need to find out from Tanya when we bring her in. Who's had eyes on her lately?" Dad asked as we all were still pondering things.

Eric jumped in. "I did for a while, but I haven't seen her move in the past few days. She either slipped out, or hasn't come out of her place. She hasn't been at the hotel since then either. So we might need to go and check her apartment."

"Tyler, take Eric with you and go check it out. Let us know what you find." Dad said, to which uncle Ty and Eric nodded and got up and left. "Anyone have anything on Black, yet?"

Everyone shook their heads. No one has been able to find him since the day of Bella's accident.

"I should've shot that bastard when I had the chance that day. He was right fucking there…" I said, frustrated, running my hands through my hair.

"Edward, no one could've know what he was gonna do. If we could've avoided it, we would have. But we can't play that game. We need to find him, and deal with him, once and for all. I want everyone looking for him; get anyone and everyone out on the streets. Get whatever information we can. Someone has to be hiding him. His dad, Tanya, the mystery woman, someone knows where he is." Dad said, and then excused everyone to their tasks.

We worked and searched for three damn days, trying to figure out where that bastard was hiding.

Uncle Ty and Eric didn't really find anything at Tanya's apartment. Like at all. It didn't really look like anyone was living there. There was furniture, and things, and clothes. But it didn't seem to be lived in.

Maybe it was a check in place for her, and then she'd go to whoever she was helping… Possibly Black. But no one was able to find out where she went in the last week.

It looked like she just disappeared.

On that third day, we got a call from one of the posts we left around the island that Bella was stranded on.

"_Boss, you're gonna have incoming. Black was just on the island, and didn't seem too happy. Next destination is probably you. So keep an eye out."_ Our guy, Johnny, had told us.

We had been going over our options on how to deal with Black. But we weren't having a lot of luck coming up with something that would leave us in the clear, or leave our numbers where they were.

We noticed more and more that Black's guys were venturing around to our properties. It didn't look like it was anyone that was of importance to him, either. We killed a few of them, and they didn't look like any of the higher up guys. So we knew that they were getting ready for something.

The problem was, we didn't know when or where. If Black was pissed that I found Bella, and one upped him, then he's gonna be out for blood.

But he has no idea what the meaning of that statement means.

He hurt my Beauty, took her away from me, put my children in danger, put Bella on the same island as those pigs, which caused her injuries, and thinks that he has a right to be pissed at me for rescuing my girl?

He's got another fucking thing coming.

During the couple of days after the phone call from our guy telling us about Black, dad started forming a plan of attack. We needed to get Ma and Alice out of the house, for one thing. Then we would need to work on how to weed out Black. Because it seemed like he was waiting for us.

We wouldn't make him wait long though…

* * *

So, some of you were right with the Tanya part, but we've still got some things that are definitely in the dark for Edward and Bella. And I know you guys have your theories. Let me have em.

And….. ok, I'm not telling you what the next chapter of MGEMP contains, but…. Just try not to sharpen the pitchforks on me. I promise, you'll have answers in time.

Alrighty, until the next one,

Laters!


	15. Chapter 15

*peeks out from hiding spot* hi guys….. sooooo… I know everyone's a little p-o'd about where I left things. Buuuuutttt, some answers are coming in this chapter, some confrontations, some shooting, etc. But please, pleeeeaaaasssseee stay with me, here. I know some of you are afraid of who is gonna die, and to be honest, I still don't know for sure who it will be. But I've told you, we're not gonna lose Edward. I promised those of you that read TGMINK that I wouldn't do that again.

So, other than that, I can't wait for you guys to read this one. It's uber fun (well for me as a writer) at the end. Some of y'all might start screaming. 'Lola beta' (that's what you're going by) said to make sure you all have a tissue handy. So here's your warning; GET EM READY.

Anywho, obviously Lola beta is my beta. Hence the name. lol (you know you love me )

And SM owns Twilight.

Read on! (With caution….)

* * *

EPOV

I think this will work….

At least I hope it does….

The cops are busy with some shit we started on the other side of town as a distraction, and the cops that _are_ probably going to take the call on anything that happens when this all goes down, are on our take.

We've had some people keeping an eye out for any sign of Black, and we finally got a hit a few days ago.

I had Riley follow him and see where he was going and if there was a pattern so we could take him out somewhere, and maybe even some of his inner circle.

And I think we've found our opportunity.

Some of Black's higher ups had been going to one of his buildings on the outer edge of Seattle, and staying there for several hours, what we can only guess is for meeting and contacting Black.

And then Riley finally saw Black going to the building and returning to his home, then back the next day.

We hadn't been able to get someone inside the building yet, but it seemed like someone was in there all the time; maybe living there. But we hadn't seen anyone else come out of there.

We were going to have stages of men staggered out around the building. We had just about every single guy we have on hand, posted everywhere possible. Basically surrounding the whole place, then start taking out as many of their guys as possible. It was probable that we would lose men, and they were well aware of that too. But they were prepared to do what was necessary for the family. They were loyal.

But if the higher up guys of Black's are all in there, then we've got the advantage if we kill all of them. There won't be that many people rushing to take over and run Black's organization. No one would be 'qualified' enough for the job.

Dad, Em, Jasper, Uncle Ty, Uncle El, Uncle Ed, Eric, Anthony and I were going in with the first wave of guys so that we were sure to be on top of what was going on. We weren't going to let anything slip past us.

So now we're sitting here, waiting for word that everyone is in place for us to go in.

"Em, what do you have?" I ask, quietly into the earpiece I'm wearing; that we're all wearing.

Every person has one on tonight, so there are no foul-ups. I'll be damned if he gets out of here alive tonight.

"All clear over here, man. No one in or out for a while. And the only sighting of Black was him going in from the SUV that came in." I heard him say back, and a confirmation from Jasper on his side too.

"Alright, I think we've given them enough time. Let's go in. Everyone on their toes. Go in quiet, and wait for my signal." Dad told everyone, and I eased my way out of my hiding spot in an alley between two buildings right beside Black's building.

I could see a few of the other guys quickly rushing over to the building, then waiting for the signal.

"Blue." That was our signal from dad to start going in.

I eased my way in the door on the side, along with Ty and Eric. We waited just inside for the rest to be in position.

Once we knew we were set, we eased our way into the next room, which sounded like it might be where the main area could be. We could hear chatter and guys laughing, which lead us to believe they had no clue we were here.

I could feel the next set of guys coming in behind us, guns ready.

We were in a large room that had several set apart areas that seemed to once be a club with booths and lots of chairs and tables, but now just looked like a crack house.

Why the hell are they spending time here? I know it's not for the ambience.

Black's guys were sitting around at the back of the room, and hadn't even noticed us enter.

This seemed too easy. And maybe it was. But it could be a trap. I know Black's been waiting on us to come for him.

We waited for dad's next signal, the one that would obviously announce our presence.

"Take your shots." Dad said to us over the earpieces, and the fifteen or so of our guys started firing at Black's men.

There were at least thirty of them, and we hit several of them, but most of them, after hearing the first shot, ducked down out of the way.

From there, it was just pure chaos. Bullets were flying everywhere, Black's guys, and our guys, were falling. More of Black's men came rushing in when they heard the commotion.

I could only hear screaming through my earpiece, and bullets whizzing by my ear.

At one point I had to pull out my knife and scrap with one guy who thought he could take me.

He obviously didn't know my training, and I was very well versed with a knife.

He tried to charge and get me in the leg, but he missed because he was slower than me. He then whirled around and tried again, to which I grabbed at his arm with the knife and tried to knock it out of his hand. We struggled for a while, and I finally had it with him, and just broke his arm, making him drop the knife, and caught him in the shoulder/neck area.

When I turned back around, things had slowed down a bit…

And by a bit, I mean there were standoffs, guns pointed at each other, lots of our guys on the ground.

But what had me stopping was that Jacob Black pointing a gun at my dad…

"Drop it, Black!" I yelled, knowing he could hear me since there were only a few other people screaming at each other now.

I raised my gun slowly, aiming it at him as I walked closer.

I could see him smirk, look behind my dad, then turn his gun on me.

"I was wondering how fucking long it was gonna take the great Cullen's to come and find me. You know, if it'd taken any longer, I probably would have had to come to you. I was getting a little bored." He fucking laughed. There were a few other men of his that were still standing, aiming at the rest of us.

"Well we're here now. Any last words before your head ends up splattered on that wall?" I asked him with so much venom in my voice.

He just kept smirking. "Irina…" He called out, and my eyes almost bugged out of my head.

Slowly, from the corner of the room, where he had looked to before he turned to me, I saw that bitch Irina walk towards us, with a gun in her hand.

"Hello Edward. Did you miss me, dear?" She sneered, and I wanted so badly to just shove my gun down her throat.

"Not really, no. What the fuck did you get mixed up in, Irina? First you wanted to take my family for a ride, now you're doing it to Black? You must really be a power hungry whore. Can't you keep your god damn legs closed?"

"Fuck you, Edward. I want what belongs to me. I deserve all of this. I should have been a mafia wife from the get-go. But when you decided to stick me with two fucking kids, I had to find another way to get what I wanted." She looked over at Jacob and I almost gagged at the sickening look that they shared. "I finally got to be in a position that afforded me with power and money that I wanted. Along with the drugs that come with it. Being a mob wife really is all it's cracked up to be. I think I'll let your little whore know that when I go and get my kids back from her." She sneered again, and I almost lost my shit.

"You will never get them back! You signed your rights away! You have no claim to them!" I yelled at her.

"Ah, but when their father turns up dead, and the little bitch that you've decided to play house with is dead too, then there is nothing to stop me from getting them back. See, I'll be in charge of the Cullen crime family then. And the Black and Cullen power and pull will be mine." She looked back over at Jacob. "Sorry Jakey. It was fun while it lasted baby." She said, and then fired a shot that hit him just below his chest.

He fell to the floor in a heap, and Irina turned her gun back to us.

"Now the Black family is mine too. Billy's already dead. Jake's dead, most of his right hand men are dead, thanks to you. So that just leaves me as the lone leader of the Black family."

"You're fucking insane, Irina. You'll never get away with any of this." Dad said to her, as he tried to get to her gun, but stopped when she turned back to him.

"Shut up Carlisle. You have no idea what I'm capable of. Do you know how easy it was to get Tanya to help me? She's the one that got me a key made for their apartments. I took all of the pictures of that bitch out of Edward's place, along with the kids' pictures. I needed to see what my 'babies' looked like now. They really do take after you Edward. Such a shame they didn't get any of my good looks. Now, let's seeeeee…. Oh yes! Tanya will be the one to help me run the families. After a sad funeral for each member, and after your 'recent wedding', she'll be able to take control over everything, even being 'stepmother' to the children. No one would suspect the mob wives of two families to kill each of them off to take over. We've got it all planned out. It'll be strange for some people, but once she and I officially get married, the families will merge. It will be one big powerful empire. We'll be the first of our kind. Not only will it be a crime family run by two women, but two women that are married to each other. It's completely unheard of, but that's what makes it so good!"

Oh my fucking god… she was a lesbian?

"You're a lesbian?" I couldn't stop the words from coming out of my mouth.

"No, I'm not just a lesbian. I'm bi-sexual, you fucktard. How do you think I got Jake to marry me? How do you think I got you into bed? How do you think I fucked your brother one night after he and his little Ali had a huge fight and he got plastered?" She turned to Jasper who was gawking at her in shock. "Aww don't you remember it Jaspy? We had such a good time together." She winked at him and focused back on us. "I even got a little with Billy once. Sure he's older, but I don't mind. And I wouldn't mind having another Cullen heir around. What do you say, Carlisle? Wanna take a ride?" She winked over at him, too.

"You're disgusting, Irina. You seriously need help." Dad said from his spot.

Irina faced him and aimed her gun at him. "Don't make me out to be some crazy person, Carlisle. I have everything under control. All of my careful planning will pay off once you're all dead. Tanya had the fake marriage license filled out; it just has to be put in the files at the courthouse without anyone noticing. And once the guys I sent to have the bitch taken care of are done, everything will fall into place." Irina's hands began to shake slightly from her anger, and I was afraid she was gonna fire it.

"You don't know the safety nets we have in place in our family, Irina. You can't just 'take over'. Things in our family are like Fort Knox. You can't possibly get around all of it." He tried to reason with her, but she was getting angrier.

I had my gun trained on her, if she even flinched, she was dead. But she was shaking in her fury that it was hard to tell. She was ready to take someone down. But if she moved her gun somewhere else, I was taking my shot.

"You're not taking my glory away from me, Carlisle! I've worked too god damn hard for this." Irina shouted.

"You didn't work for anything, Irina. You fucked your way into the bed of a mafia leader. That's not work, that's whoring. Do yourself a favor, and get out while you can." Dad tried again, but I think his words finally set her off. She screamed, and fired at dad, I fired at her, more shots went off, and then I felt something in my leg and collapsed to the ground.

* * *

Soooo, ummmmm, we still don't have a body count. And I'm gonna get that figured out soon. I promise. Please, pleeeeaaaasssseee stay with me. I know some of you are gonna be upset, and that's understandable, but it's also part of the story. Things are happening for a reason.

I will work as fast as I can on the next chapters. I know this one took some time, but with Christmas, and having to go to my sister's to watch the kids for a few days, I hadn't touched my laptop in five days. FIVE! That doesn't freaking happen! But hopefully I'll get back on a normal schedule soon…. Maybe…. At least after this weekend.

Soo for now, stay with me. Don't stop reading in the middle of everything. How will you ever know how it ends? I did promise HEA. And damn it we're gonna get it! Lol

Laters!


	16. Chapter 16

*still hiding* Hiya *waves* Alright, so I decided to add this chapter before I went back to MGEMP's next chapter. Mostly because I wanted to figure out who actually died, and what else happened to everyone. I wouldn't have been able to do that writing on the other story, and I wanted to get something out to y'all, to at least let most of you know what's going on. So you'll be able to have the answers, instead of waiting longer. So no complaining!

I actually had to write this one twice, to figure out exactly what I was gonna do. I didn't know for sure who was gonna die until the moment I sat down to write this chapter. Even then, I kept going back and forth, wondering if one version would work better, or not. This chapter, is mostly going to just be the answers you want. After I get this up, I'm gonna start on MGEMP, and get more answers there too. I know some of you were wondering about Tanya… we'll get to that…

And you all know the drill by now. Lola is my bestest beta. And, SM owns Twilight. (but I am going to be an owner of a copy of Lola's book soon! Muahs!)

Alright, get to reading!

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EPOV

Ugh, I'd know a gunshot wound anywhere.

Fuck this shit to hell.

"Edward, stay still. You're going to tear your stitches, man." I heard from beside me.

I slowly opened my eyes and saw Jasper sitting next to my bed in the 'infirmary', as we've come to call it. It's really the basement of my parent's house that was made into an infirmary and more storage for the business. Stuff we're trying to keep off the radar. We keep an army of doctors and surgeons on payroll in case things like this happen. And it's a good thing we do, because I really don't want to be hassled at a hospital right now. The infirmary is just as well stocked.

And right now, I can tell it's where I am.

I can feel that the bed under me is much more comfortable than a hospital bed, and the air is somewhat warmer than it would be in a hospital.

I try to clear my throat and speak. "What happened? Is everyone ok?"

He ran his hand through his hair, and then looked up at me with sadness in his eyes.

"Ed… Uncle Ty and Uncle Ed didn't make it…Eric's touch and go right now… Dad got shot, but he's alive. He obviously had more than one gun trained on him, because he was shot from two different points, and the second one hit him in the back. Edward, he can't walk. The bullet hit his spine, and it'll be almost impossible for him to walk ever again. So, to the rest of the world, right now, he's dead. It's not gonna be safe for him, or us, if they see him as a weakness. It's better if they see that we've lost our dad, and we're out for blood. That way, we won't be messed with, and dad can retire and recover with Ma. He said he still wants to be involved, but he's just going to be… in an advisement position. That was his words." Jasper explained, and I was slightly relieved that dad was at least alive.

But I remember that Uncle Ty and Uncle Ed are dead, and a few tears slip down my face.

"Em must be crushed…" I trailed off, wondering where he is and how he's handling this.

We just lost two of our uncles… damn it…

Jasper had a sad, disparaged look on his face. "He is. He's with Aunt Liz back at the apartments. She was devastated when he told her. And you; you're out of commission, too, bro. You've got severe nerve damage to your leg where you got shot. You're gonna be walking with a cane for a long time."

"Ah, god damn it…" I sighed heavily, and tried to move my leg a little, but it didn't really have much feeling in it. "No wonder I can't feel it right now. Am I on pain meds?" Fucking hell, how am I supposed to work and keep up with the family business when I can't run or walk like I used to?

"Yeah, you're on a pretty high dosage right now, but they're gonna bring it down soon. But we need to get ready to talk to the cops, too."

"Shit…" I grumbled, scrubbing a hand down my face. There had to be something that we could give to the cops to get them off of our asses… "Can't we use Irina and her crazy ass to explain all of this? You know, she tried to trap our family when she got pregnant with the twins, then she waits and gets into bed with Black, marries him, then lures us all into a shootout and thought she could end up running both families? Because that's essentially what she did. We can just fudge the truth that she wanted to be able to run both mob families. Shouldn't that be enough for them?"

He sat and thought for a moment before he spoke. "It might. We should wait for the lawyers to get here though. Jenks and Demetri should be able to give us a better idea."

I nodded, and rested back on the bed. Fuck, this is gonna be shitty for us for a while.

"Is there nothing Marcus can do?" I know Marcus was on our payroll as a cop, but couldn't he do something to keep them off our asses?

"I don't know. He's trying. He can't keep them held off forever. A suspected mob boss was blown up in his own building, another suspected mob boss is 'shot dead'… not pointing too much of anything other than a mob war."

"He's a dirty cop, he's paid to make things look a certain way for us and keep us out of jail!" I almost shout.

"I know, dude, but the Seattle PD chief wants to bring in the FBI. If we get them on us, we're pretty much done. He's trying to make sure it stays his case, though. The only illegal things we've done are killing people and running guns. The killing we did trying to help out the cops. So they can't pin us for that, without getting themselves in trouble. The guns, they can't prove without probable cause. They have none. I know they'd try to pin drugs and illegal gambling on us, but that would just blow up in their faces. They're looking for someone to blame, and we're the prime targets since we've been shot too." Jasper explains, and I just huff and flop back down on the bed.

"What are we gonna do, Jazz? How are we supposed to keep shit going if we've lost so many men; dad's out, I'm out, Uncle Ty's gone, and Uncle Ed's gone? We've gotta figure something out."

Jazz sighed and slumped back in his chair. "I'm not sure, man. With dad out, and Uncle Ed gone, that leaves you and me to take over for dad, and Em to take over for Uncle Ed… But Em said he doesn't want to run things. He'd rather Anthony take over for him. I'm wondering if we should just focus our resources on either staying here, or going back to Chicago… I don't think we've got enough senior members left to be in both places at once. Em's already moving out here. That leaves Anthony to run Chicago. But without Uncle Ed around… I don't think he can do it on his own, yet. And I know I can't do it by myself, either. I'm just not sure what to do, yet. I think once we talk to Marcus, then we'll be able to get a better judgment on where to go from here. But we need to have things in place for either occurrence."

"Jasper, you're gonna have to take the reigns on things. You're the only able body left, with Em and Anthony. You've gotta take the lead. You're the first born's son; it's your job." I know I have to step aside, regardless of who dad was planning on having take over.

Jasper needs to do this. I don't see how I would be able to head up this organization when I've got a permanent, hindering injury like nerve damage to the leg. If I'm walking around with a cane for most of my life, I need to step to the side and focus on the behind the scenes workings of the business.

"Edward, we can both do it. I'll be in the field; you can run the home base of things. I know what you're thinking, and I'm not letting you give up on it. We have to do this as a team, Ed. We've always been that way. Dude, we shared a womb together. We're not gonna just stop working like we used to just because you're out of commission. I… I'm not as confident about running things as you are, man. I need you with me for this." I've never really seen Jasper this nervous about anything before. And to see the worry on his face now as he's asking me to work with him isn't something I'm used to.

"Of course I'll help. I'll do whatever I can, bro, you know that. I just think it's gonna take some time before I'm even able to do much of anything. Did the doctor say anything else about my injuries?"

He took out the clipboard beside my bed and looked it over. "He said that the bullet got lodged into the tissue of your upper leg. You were lucky it didn't hit the artery; you wouldn't have faired so well. But it did hit the nerves. He said that nerve damage is going to take a long time to heal, and even when it does, it's no guarantee that they'll grow back together like they're supposed to be. Which is what he said will probably have you walking with a cane for most of your life. He said that you hit your head when you fell to the ground, and that knocked you out, but you don't have any swelling or damage to you head, other than a little knot. He said physical therapy is a definite for you. So don't even bitch about it. We're going to setup a place at the hotel, and one here for you and dad, when he's ready for it. He's got a long road ahead of him, bro." He said, placing the clipboard back and sitting back in his chair.

"I know. I think we all do after this. With all this hitting us… the Black's finally being gone, what Irina said… Jazz, did you know about… what she said about you?"

He scrubbed his hands down his face again and propped them on his lap. "No. I had no fucking clue. And the only time I can think of it happening was when we were twenty-four, and Alice was so pissed that I still hadn't asked her to marry me. And honestly, I still don't know why it's taken this long. I should have married her when we were eighteen and been done with it. But I guess when I saw what Irina did to you, and I just didn't know what a wedding would do to you at the time. So I guess I just put it off, and I just let time slip. Ali and I have always been like a married couple, and it never felt like we needed a piece of paper to tell us that. But then, when we had that fight, man she was so pissed, and she thought I didn't love her anymore. And I told her that was the most insane thing in the world, because I've loved her since forever. Ali is to me, like Bella is to you. We knew before we really _knew._ But that night when I went out, I got completely smashed and I don't even know how the fuck I got home. But after that night, I knew I had to get my head out of my ass and find the best way to ask her. So I started planning, and that was when I got the trip to Rome together." He threw his arms over his face and leaned back in the chair. "God damn it, I have to tell her, don't I?"

"I would say that it would be best to tell her. It wasn't your fault, Jazz, and Ali knows you better than anyone. She knows how much you love her. And that you would never willingly stray away from her. I won't say anything, but you need to be the one to tell her, man." I knew this wouldn't be easy on them, but they were stronger than this. They'd pull through.

"God, that woman was sick in the fucking head. She even asked dad if he wanted a go with her." He made a gagging sound and I even felt like throwing up at that, too.

"Yeah, that's not an image I'd like to see anytime in my life." I shuddered at the very thought. "Has anyone called and told ma what's going on yet?"

* * *

Soooo, there's your answers! I know you're all happy that Carlisle, Edward, and Jasper are still alive!

More stuff to come, looooots of stuff. We may have more twists and turns, we may just see the rest of their lives play out. Not sure yet. We'll have to wait as see….

Alright, see you guys at MGEMP next time.

Laters!


	17. Chapter 17

*peeks around the corner and waves* Hiyas guys! I know it's been a while. But I'm still dealing with some shit in my personal life, and I'm trying to work through it, and still write. I'm getting there, though. It's just taking a little longer.

I'm going to address something real quick, that I didn't realize that I'd done in this story. Yes, Edward's middle name is 'legally' Edward Anthony Masen Cullen. But, I didn't put it in there like that. And I used EAC at one time, which isn't totally untrue, but Mason's name did come from there. And I know I also started out the story with Mason's name being spelled Masen, but when I got a new laptop and started using a new word system, it would switch Masen to Mason, and I'd have to physically go back and fix it all, so I just left it like it is. You guys get the idea though, I hope. Lol

And I'd like all of you to keep my beta Lola in your prayers since she just lost her mother a couple of weeks ago. Love you, Lo. Muahs

And SM is obviously the mastermind of Twilight. We all just play in her world.

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EPOV

The past few months have been… a challenge, to say the least.

Some days are pretty ok. Others… are just plain hell.

But I don't know how I'd have gotten through any of it without Bella or the kids. They have been there through everything, and so amazing through it all.

I'm finally able to walk around a little bit more. It's not for long, or really far distances, but I can feel that I'm getting stronger each day. It's always with a cane, but right now, it's the best way for me to do it. I can move around without it, like if I've got something to hold on to. But it gets annoying. I really just want to be able to go without it. And I'm looking forward to getting back to work with the guys in the coming months.

But right now, we're in a stare-off with the twins' birthday party, and I'm just before blinking, and running away.

I don't remember it being this hard to plan a birthday party for them, but with them being in school, and with everything going on lately, I was just ready to throw my hands up in defeat.

But once again, Bella is my savior.

She saw how frustrated I was at the beginning of the planning process, and she basically just told me to sit down and shut up before I had a heart attack, and that she would take over the planning.

And I kissed the hell out of her for that too.

So, with all the planning done, and the kids staying at our place with Jasper, we were trying to get my parents' house decorated and setup for their party.

Somehow, and I really couldn't tell you how they came up with it, but the party looked like just one person's party, instead of boy and girl twins.

The only part you could really tell it from was that the streamers were pink on one side of the room, and silver on the other. But they met in the center and made it look like it was still flowing together.

_I blame Alice for that thought of flowing…_

Izzy, like every little girl, loves princesses and fairies. Mason loves nature and has become interested in old castles lately. So Bella and Alice decided that they could tie all of it in together.

And it really does work; Princesses and castles? They just go together.

And the fairies and nature are perfect 'accents', as Alice called it.

The women ended up getting a castle jump house and having medieval stuff that had to do with castles setup around. They set up ma's flower garden as a fairy garden, and ma, Alice, Rose and Bella were actually going to dress up like Disney princesses.

Bella was, of course, going to be Belle. Alice was going to dress up as Snow White. Rose was going to be Aurora. And mom decided to be Merida, since Iz has just fallen in love with that Brave movie.

I'm just glad they were able to do the party, because I don't think I'd have been able to think half of this up. They really made the back yard into a magical world for the kids. And I know they're going to be so excited about it all.

I'm still trying to figure out how much more stuff they're doing to the rest of the house and back deck, because the women keep going back upstairs to the attic to bring more stuff down… or they'll send Em up there to get it.

I still hate that I'm not able to help out as much as I'd like to, but everyone, myself included, have said that I need to heal properly. So that meant I needed to listen to the doctor and physical therapist, and take it easy.

Doesn't mean I have to like being the gimp.

"Edward, if you're going to pout, why don't you go and sit in with your father." Ma teased me as I was sitting on the deck watching them run around getting stuff finished.

"I'm fine, ma. I'm just ready to get a clearance to start walking like a normal human being again."

She walked over and squeezed me to her side. "I know, baby. You knew it was gonna take a while. It's only been a few months. No one expects you to be running marathons yet. You're doing great. Your walking is still going to be uneven, yes, but I'm just thankful you weren't hit like your dad was. I don't know if I'd be able to handle it if both of you were incapacitated. This was bad enough. I'm just glad you're recovering as well as you have been." She leaned over and kissed the top of my head, then was off helping with the rest of the decorations.

As things were getting finished up, I called Jasper to bring the kids over, since the other kids would be arriving and the party would be starting in about an hour.

Thankfully, Jasper was on top of things and had the kids already getting dressed.

I think Alice got onto him so he wouldn't pussy-foot around.

Thank God for that woman.

The women all went up to get dressed in their costumes so that they were out front and in the back yard to greet the parents and kids.

Aunt Liz had been sitting with dad most of the day so that he wouldn't be lonely while we were all out here working and enjoying the party.

I did promise him I'd sneak him some cake later on, though.

He's been doing well in his own recovery, too. His doctor still thinks he won't walk again, but he wants to be able to prove him wrong.

I don't know if it'll happen though. From what the doctor says, the damage was too severe, and the nerves and muscles didn't show any signs of growing back together like they should.

But he's determined, and the doctor said that was half the battle.

"Alright everyone! If I could get you to gather in the back yard to greet Mason and Izzy when they get here, I'd appreciate it. They'll be here very soon." Bella informed everyone, and the kids started running out the back door.

Bella is really taking on the role as the kids' mother, and she's doing it so well. I had one of the teachers at their school ask me when their mother was going to join the PTA because she's all Mason and Izzy talk about, sometimes. I never corrected her, but I did tell her that I would talk to Bella about it.

She wasn't too thrilled with me about either part, but she said she'd think about it.

A few minutes later, I see Jasper walking through the back doors with Mason and Izzy in tow.

The look on their faces is priceless. They are so happy, shocked, elated, and bouncing around the deck trying to see everything.

They come down the stairs and greet their friends and they're off and running into all of the different things setup for the party.

Bella, ever the wonderful mother that she is, was on top of everything during the party. And dresses up as a princess, in the process.

She just reminded me of my mother every time we had a party as a kid. Ma was always interacting with the parents, the kids, making sure everyone was taken care of, being a gracious hostess, always with a smile on her face.

That's how Bella looked right now. She stressed about this party, even fought Alice on a few things, but she got everything done, and made sure the kids had the best birthday party ever.

Watching Mason and Izzy, I know they're the happiest they've ever been. And I'm so ready to give them one of their birthday presents. It's something they know about, but my plans are for later when everyone leaves.

The party was a huge success. The kids were smiling and laughing the entire time.

The women dressing up as princesses were huge too, because all of the kids wanted a picture with the princesses.

One little girl came up to Izzy and told her that she wished her mom was a princess like Iz's mom.

I have to admit, that was cute.

And then Mason asked me if he could have the bounce castle, to keep.

I did cave on that, only because I thought it was fucking awesome, and I want to jump in it myself, when my leg is in better shape.

Later that afternoon when all the guests were gone, I told Mason and Izzy to get in the car so that I could give them their last birthday present.

Since we were staying at my parents' house for the night, this would be the perfect opportunity to do all of this.

I had taken Bella out to see the property a couple of times since I told her about buying it and the building had just started on the house. But I needed to show the kids what was going on, too. So I was going to kill two birds with one stone.

Or more like two presents for the kids.

"What are we doing, babe?" Bella asked as we got in the car.

"Showing the kids part of our future." I told her, driving off towards the property that wasn't too far from my parents' house.

As we make our way over there, I start thinking about the future. This is the first time we've gone over to the property as a family, and I can see driving home from mom and dad's after Sunday dinners, picking the kids up from school and bringing them home, even bringing home a third little miracle of our own from the hospital.

The last one makes me smile like an idiot.

I want all of that, and I'm gonna start on getting it, right now.

Pulling up through the long driveway and into the opening where the house is being built, it just brings a world of happiness to my heart.

This is ours, it's going to be our home where we make a family and grow old together.

After I stopped the car and we got out, we walked around the house and the garden type area, which also kind of reminds me of one of those forest mazes. It's big and open, but there's definitely a path to follow through it.

"Guys, this is going to be our new house. It's still being built, but it's going to be where we live when it's done." I told them as I rested on one of the benches that I told the contractors that I wanted put in the garden.

Mason and Izzy darted their eyes around in excitement, taking in everything again, before they turned back to me.

"Really?!" Izzy squealed.

"Yep. It's gonna be a few more months before we can move in, but it's starting to look like a house, now." I told them, showing them both that the first floor was done, along with the basement and some of the areas outside have been cleared out for the dog kennel and more work ready to be done with the garden, a tree picked out that would be their tree house. I told them that one day we might get horses and that there is a large area set aside for them on the property.

They were so excited as I was telling them this, but then Izzy turned around with a worried look in her eyes.

"Daddy… momma's gonna live with us too, right?" Now I get why she looks worried.

She thinks we're moving away from Bella.

I held my arms out to my daughter, and she came and sat on my lap.

"Baby, of course she is. She's your mother, and she'll still be with us. But I do need yours and Mason's help with something. I need to ask mommy a very important question." I told her, whispering the last part so only she and Mason could hear it.

I saw it click in her mind, and then she jumped off my lap and grabbed Mason's hand.

I stood up from the bench and walked over to Bella, and looked her in the eyes.

"Bella, I've been in love with you… probably since forever. You've always been my best friend. You've always been the light that warmed my heart. Anytime we were together as kids, remembering you when we were gone, seeing you again that night in the hotel and finally having you back in my life makes me feel complete. Mason and Izzy have been my whole world since they've been born, but there was always that one thing missing in my life. A mother for them, and a partner for me. The person that finishes the puzzle. Izzy was right that day she asked you to be their mother; I have been lonely. Because I was missing my other half. My Brown Eyed Beauty was my missing puzzle piece. And now that I've got you back, I need to ask you something. Well, actually, we need to ask you something." I said, and then turned to look at Mason and Izzy, who I had slipped the ring to while I was talking to Bella.

Izzy held up the ring, that was white gold, with two aquamarine stones on either side of a pearl. It was our birthstones.

"Mommy, will you marry us?" They both said together.

I looked back up at Bella and saw the tears streaming down her face.

"What do you say, Beautiful? Will you marry us?" I asked, hoping she would, in fact, say yes, after she said she would months ago.

A huge, brilliant smile lit up Bella's face as she flung her arms around me, hugging the stuffing out of me.

"Yes! Yes, of course I will, you crazy, wonderful man." She said, kissing me all over my face, laughing.

She pulled back and pulled the kids over to us and hugged them, too.

I got the ring from Izzy and pulled Bella back up, and slipped the ring on her ring finger.

"I figured since you were marrying all three of us, that it might be good to represent all of us in your engagement ring." I said as I kissed her lips.

She looked back down at it, and couldn't keep the smile off of her face.

"It's perfect, Edward." She whispered, and I could tell she was fighting back more tears.

"Mommy, you're gonna stay with us forever, right?" Mason asked, tugging her down to their level.

"I wouldn't be anywhere else, baby. You three are my entire world, and I'm never going to leave you." she kissed his little cheeks and hugged them both again.

* * *

Tears? Anyone? I had them when I was writing the end of this chapter.

And I've debated whether to end it here or not. In some ways, it'd be a good spot to leave off and wait for the 'sequel'. But it'll be a while before any type of sequel will be done for this set, but I feel like I could do a lot more with these characters.

Maybe I'll just do a reeeeaaaallly big epilogue for each side, and leave it at that…. Not sure yet. I've still gotta think on it.

I know I've got one or two loose ends to tie up in this story. Yes, Tanya is still out there, and no we haven't dealt with Charlie yet. But I'm planning on it.

Anywho, I'll get to working on the next chapter as soon as I can, and get it out to you guys.

Thanks for being patient(even though a few of you weren't. lol) and I'll see you guys soon!

Laters!y.


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